Barley Croquettes

These turned out pretty good. Took almost twice the amount of time to cook than what the original recipe stated (the time listed here is more accurate). Original came with a recipe for a mushroom sauce, but I served this with home made tomato sauce, like what you would put on to pasta. This makes a lot of croquettes and half of the recipe would be plenty for the two of us next time. I also had to add fine bread crumbs in order to get the patties to stick together. Adapted from a recipe submitted by Jan Gordon on fatfree.com. I think that this recipe will be even better with other vegetables and or herbs and spices added to the barley mixture. This is a good base recipe and warrants some playing around with. I'd love to hear how you tweaked it!

• Ready In: 3 hrs 20 mins
• Serves: 6
• Yields: 24 30 croquettes

Ingredients

• 4  stalks celery, chopped
• 1  large carrot, finely chopped
• 3  cups  whole barley
• 6  cups water, with
•  bouillon cubes or  broth
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
•  fresh ground pepper
• 1  teaspoon dried basil
• 2  bay leaves
• 2  whole garlic cloves
•  breadcrumbs (use if needed)

Directions

1. Rinse barley under fresh water.
2. Bring barley, celery, carrot, broth, and herbs to a boil in a large pan with a lid.
3. When boiling, reduce heat to low and put lid on pan. Cook until water/ broth is gone and barley is tender.
4. Remove from heat. Remove bay leaves and discard. Remove any remaining whole garlic cloves. I took out the whole cloves and added it to the blender puree mixture for added flavor.
5. Puree half of the barley mixture in a food processor or blender. Add puree back to barley in a large bowl and mix. Cool until you can handle the mixture.
6. Make small patties out the the barley mixture, adding bread crumbs as needed to make them stick.
7. Pan fry on a non-stick skillet on both sides until crispy on the outside.
8. Serve with your favorite sauce.