Comfort Food: Beef and Barley Soup

January in Minnesota can be a tough one. Holidays are over, spring is a ways off, and it can take some fortitude to just keep getting up each day. I'm a fan of the earthy flavors of mushrooms, barley and beef that have cooked for a couple of hours to let the flavors meld, the meat tenderize and the whole house to smell warm and homey.

Another library cookbook find is Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden by Jeanne Kelly. She had a lovely recipe for Beef Barley soup that is chocked full of wild mushrooms including shitake, oyster, cremini (baby portabellas) and porcini. A little heavy on the thyme otherwise the recipe was divine and reheated well for leftovers. An earlier version of this recipe appeared in Bon Appetit in 1999.

Here's the recipe for 8 from page 67 of the above cookbook:
2 T olive oil
12 oz assorted fresh wild mushrooms (see above)
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 lbs stew meat
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 c. dried porcini mushrooms, broken into pieces
1/2 lb parsnips, peeled and sliced (omitted, Rick doesn't like parsnips)
1/2 lb carrots, peeled and sliced
3/4 c barley
3 T chopped fresh thyme or 2 T dried thyme (I recommend using 1 1/2 T dried)
Salt and pepper

Heat oil in heavy, large pot over medium-high heat. Add the fresh mushrooms and onions. Saute until the mushrooms brown, about 18 minutes.

Add the beef and garlic and cook until the beef browns, about 6 minutes. Add 3 cups water, the porcini mushroonms, and the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until the meat is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

Season the soup with salt and pepper.