I adopted a chicken this past fall. The University of Alberta has a heritage chicken program that helps fund its work by adopting out their flock. It’s a brilliant plan. Adoptive chicken parents get eggs, and the University keeps a unique breed of chicken alive. My chicken is a Brown Leghorn that I named Sugar.
We got our first eggs Jan 5th.
I gave these first eggs the honour of centre stage in our dinner and made poached eggs on a bed of barley risotto, with flat bread and a spinach salad to round out the meal.
A while back I found that I get a better poached eggs by adding touch of vinegar in he water, but the real determinant of a nice looking poached egg is the freshness of the egg itself. These eggs were fresh and poached beautifully. Barley risotto has a nutty taste that complimented the creamy egg.
Sugar’s Eggs with Barley Risotto
You’ll need one part pot barley to 2-2 1/2 parts liquid. I chose vegetable broth.
I used a cup of barley. It yielded four servings.
- Pot barley
- Stock
- Carrot, celery, onion finely diced
- Garlic, minced
- Another diced veggie (I chopped up pea pods)
- White wine
- Oil
- Thyme
Cook the diced onion, celery and carrot in a deep frying pan. When those are cooked but not browned throw in a little minced garlic and stir that for a second. Then add a glug of white wine – maybe 1/4C. Add thyme. Throw in the barley and stir. Pour in stock to cover the barley. Keep the liquid on a low simmer, stirring frequently. Continue to add broth to keep the barley covered as the liquid is absorbed. The barley will be lightly chewy when it is done, but not crunchy. It takes 20-40 minutes depending on temperature. It is done when it is done.
The other vegetable goes into the risotto nearer the end. Pea pods take no time to cook so I added them right at the end when the risotto was done. I stirred them in, turned off the heat, and covered the pan while I poached the eggs. That was enough to steam the chopped pea pods.
Make the salad. I made a simple dressing out of olive oil, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard and a little salt and pepper. I keep small glass jars for this, put the oil, acid and seasoning in and shake it in the jar.
When the barley is done and covered, bring the water for the eggs to a boil in a shallow pan. Put a dash of vinegar in the water. Poach the eggs in the boiling water.
Serve the eggs on a bed of barley.
Make me eat my words. 