Coco Harris of Opera Girl Cooks presents Roasted Beef Barley Soup

Courtesy of Coco Harris of www.operagirlcooks.com

Roasted Beef Barley Soup

serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of cross-cut beef shank, 1? thick
• 1 lb. beef stew meat, cut into 1? pieces
• 1 large yellow onion, cut into 1? dice
• 2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1? dice
• 2 Chantenay (or other large) carrots, peeled and cut into 1? dice
• 2 Tbsp. Garlic Gold^® oil (or extra virgin olive oil and a minced clove of garlic)
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 5 inner ribs celery (leaves included), cut into 1? pieces
• 1/2 lb. white button mushrooms, quartered
• 1 C. pearl barley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Spread out the beef, onions, parsnips, and carrots on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle the Garlic Gold^® oil, salt, and pepper evenly over everything. Toss with your hands to coat all the ingredients evenly. Bake for 45 minutes, or until ingredients are well browned but not burned.
3. Transfer contents of baking sheet to a large (6-quart) soup pot or dutch oven. Add the celery, button mushrooms, and pearl barley to the pot. Cover everything with water by two inches.
4. Heat the soup pot over a medium flame until it just comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, then cover and let simmer for 2 hours, or until meat is just beginning to fall off of the shank bones.
5. Remove shank bones, cut the shank meat into bite-size pieces and return to pot.
6. Skim the fat from the top of the soup pot. You can either do this with a ladle while the soup is still hot (tedious but effective), or strain the broth to separate it from the solid ingredients, chill the broth, then skim off the solid layer of fat. Reheat the broth and solid ingredients together.
7. Season to taste, adding more salt if necessary. Ladle into bowls and serve.