Recipe Berbere Beef Barley Wine Soup

flyinglentris

flyinglentris

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Berbere Beef Barley Wine Soup:

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Ingredients:

1) Stewing beef - 1 cup
2) Barley - 1/8 cup dry
3) BerBere spice mix - 2 tblspns.
4) Garlic - 1/8 cup
5) Scallions - 1/8 cup
6) Tomato - 1
7) Mixed Vegetables - 1/8 cup
8) Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon - 1/4 cup
9) Water - as required


Procedure:

1) Boil about 1 cup water with barley.
2) Dice garlic and tomato. Keep separate.
3) Cross-cut scallions.
4) Add beef, garlic and scallions when barley is softened.
5) Add mixed Vegetables, wine and spice mix.
6) Simmer for 5 minutes and add diced tomato.
7) Simmer another 5 to 10 minutes.
8) Serve.
 
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This meal is a first in couple ways, for me. It's may first time using a number of spices, fenugreek, cardamon and cumin. It's also the first time I've used nutmeg in a meal, instead of in something like egg nog. It's also the first time I've flavored a soup with a wine.
 
flyinglentris said:
Berbere Beef Barley Wine Soup:

View attachment 57499

Ingredients:

1) Stewing beef - 1 cup
2) Barley - 1/8 cup dry
3) BerBere spice mix - 2 tblspns.
4) Garlic - 1/8 cup
5) Scallions - 1/8 cup
6) Tomato - 1
7) Mixed Vegetables - 1/8 cup
8) Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon - 1/8 cup
9) Water - as required


Procedure:

1) Boil about 1 cup water with barley.
2) Dice garlic and tomato. Keep separate.
3) Cross-cut scallions.
4) Add beef, garlic and scallions when barley is softened.
5) Add mixed Vegetables, wine and spice mix.
6) Simmer for 5 minutes and add wine and diced tomato.
7) Simmer another 5 to 10 minutes.
8) Serve.
Click to expand...
Should the wine be added in step 5 or 6?
 
mjd said:
Thanks. It looks yummy. I've added it to my list to try.
Click to expand...

When you mix the Berbere spice mix, if you can't find habanero powder, its ok to use red pepper.
 
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This is my rendition of your soup. I would really classify it as more of a stew, though the Berber gives it a bit of a spiciness that almost makes it a chili. The fact that it can be multiple things and still make sense is remarkable.

But first, what I changed. I added beef stock: far superior to water. And, I added onions. I can’t imagine making a stew without onions. I added bacon fat, and sautéed the onion and garlic. I also sautéed the Berber. There’s a transformative quality to spices when you heat them up, or when you fry them. And, I browned the beef in the pan with the sautéed items. And, I threw the barley in uncooked. I think cooking them first, then stewing it would make them too soft. And, I doubled the amount of barley. It didn’t seem like there was enough. I let everything stew for half an hour, and the barley cooked along with everything else.

But, these are your raw materials. I loved using the mixed vegetables. For geezers like me, that always means frozen yellow, green, and red pellets. It’s amazing how well it works, even with ancient mixed veg.

The beef and mixed vegetables are straight out of the 1950s. But, the Barber makes it 1950s North Africa. Berbere has recently become my favorite spice, dethroning the former champ, garam masala. This is probably triple the amount of Berber I would have used in a recipe previously. But, it works so well with the beef and all the vegetables.

I do prefer your Berber recipe to the store brand berbere. I don’t even want to look at the store brand. Maybe I should empty the jar and use it for some homemade Berber?

And, the wine still plays an important role. It cuts through and also supports the Berber and the beef. Everything works beautifully together.
 
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