Barley-Millet Skillet

If you can find a copy of the Sacajawea Cookbook (at the time I wrote this post, Powell's had two copies left), and you like big game and grains, it's an Off Belay Cafe-endorsed investment.  On the one hand, some of the dishes are a laughable, because so many of them--even in the "vegetables" section--open with "1 pound of elk/bison/venison/beef.  A friend, leafing through while I made the Barley Millet Skillet for the first time, noticed that there is one recipe which appears twice in the book, with different names, but with identical ingredients and procedure.  On the other hand, I've never made anything from this cookbook and reflected later that I feel no need to ever make it again.  It's all good.  Maybe because most of it starts with a pound of meat, but not necessarily.

I like this dish as an all-purpose side because it's full of vegetables and grains, and pairs well with everything to which I've introduced it.  Plus, it's more interesting than just another serving of rice, and the name rhymes, so it's fun to say.  Go ahead, try it!  I'll wait here.

I bought our barley and millet bulk, and it wasn't until after I'd made this the first time that we realized that the "quick-cooking barley" specified in the recipe might be something we could have found in a box elsewhere in the store.  By then, we'd already figured out how to fake our way through with what we had, and we were happy with the results, so I bought bulk the next time we wanted it, too.  Here's the catch: barley cooks in about 45 minutes.  Millet only takes 15.  Solution: I toasted the barley in the skillet first, then dumped it into the simmering broth to cook while I toasted the millet.  When my timer was down to about fifteen minutes, I added the millet.  Stir well with this addition.  I forgot to stir it once when I was too busy and distracted in the kitchen, and the millet was a little too crunchy.  While the grains kept each other company, I stir-fried the veggies.

Barley, toasting in a big skillet.  You may hear little pops, like tiny popcorn.  That's normal, but remember to stir it so you don't get a bunch of burnt grain.

Toasting millet.  Use just a little olive oil for both grains.  It will cook better, and make it easier to scrape everything into the broth later.

Carrots, bell pepper, and red onion.  This is a slight diversion from the recipe, because these are the veggies I had.  That's the nice thing about recipes; they're usually pretty flexible.  This is also good with broccoli or celery.

Blackened catfish is in the background; we'll talk about that next week.

When the grain is done cooking, it will probably have absorbed all the broth.  Then you can dump it into the skillet with the veggies and let everybody get warm and cozy together before you lean out the kitchen door and bellow, "come gitcho vittles!"