Nancy Ames sounded like a snake oil salesman when she took the stage in front of a small crowd of Winnipeg residents.
The Agriculture Canada scientist said humble barley, the prairie cereal grain that is now used mainly to feed pigs, cattle, beer drinkers and beef-and-barley soup fans, could become a basic product in every cook’s kitchen. It is perfect for taco chips, tortillas, salads and desserts, and a perfect replacement for instant rice and nut clusters.
She also said barley supplies
dietary fibre, can fight cholesterol to help prevent heart disease and strokes, and provides antioxidant vitamin E to fight cancer and boost the immune system.
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But Ames, unlike most snake oil salesmen, wasn’t just talking. She was showing what she claimed by serving a three-course barley-based lunch to about a dozen agricultural reporters.
The barley feast was cooked by chef Peter Ecker and eaten in front of a small crowd of onlookers at a downtown Winnipeg market.
“It’s really different than anything you’ve seen before Ð ever,” said Ames about her “instant barley,” a popcorn-like product she has developed that is “ready in five minutes,” just like instant rice.
Ecker turned the instant barley into a base for a Spanish-style filling and a curry filling for barley flour tortillas.
“We’re not trying to replace wheat flour here,” Ames said. “We’re trying to utilize the great properties (in barley) to give consumers a nutritious, real functional type of tortilla.”
Ames said barley contains little of the gluten found in most bread.
Ecker also used barley ingredients to make tabouli, a salad that is usually based on bulgur wheat.
As the farm reporters ate their barley salads and barley tortillas, they also snacked on barley taco chips and “barley nuts,” which are like corn nuts. The luncheon was topped by an invention Ecker called “barley brulee,” a barley-based version of the upscale dessert crme brulee. The reporters determined the dessert was delicious.
Members of the audience were also given a taste.
Winnipeg resident Shirley Dalzell was convinced of barley’s virtues as a possible kitchen staple.
“I was quite impressed,” said Dalzell, as she tasted a “barley cluster,” which is a white chocolate and barley product much like a nut cluster.
“Lovely. Tasty. Very good. I had no idea you could do so much with barley. All I ever used barley for was beef and barley soup,” she said.
“Hopefully it won’t be too long before it’s on the store shelves.”
Ames said she and her fellow researchers at Agriculture Canada are trying to commercialize these barley products and are perfecting blends and developing special barley varieties that will produce these types of foods.
Nancy’s mother, Kathleen Ames, was proud of her daughter.
“She’s talked about this for years, and it’s nice to actually see it in a product,” she said “It’s remarkable.”