The pearl barley used in this recipe has had its outer bran and husk removed, leaving a small white “pearl” of endosperm. Like white rice, pearl barley is not a whole grain.

This recipe, which serves four, is from Justin O’Connor, Executive Chef at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. It will be served at the restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day.
 
 
BARLEY RISOTTO STUFFED CABBAGE RECIPE

Ingredients For Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients For The Tomato Sauce

 
Tomato Sauce Preparation

1. Sweat. In a pan, sweat onion and garlic with olive oil for 3-4 minutes. Do not allow them to brown.

2. Combine. Add the chopped tomato and tomato purée.

3. Add. Add vegetable stock and season with salt and pepper.

4. Cook. Cook over low heat for 7-8 minutes. Blend and serve.
 
Stuffed Cabbage Preparation

1. Blanch. Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling salted water for 3 to 4 minutes and cool in ice water.

2. Sweat. In a pot, sweat the onion, mushroom and garlic with a little olive oil for 4 or 5 minutes, without turning brown.

3. Add. Pour in the stock, barley and thyme. Cover with a lid and slow cook till barley is tender, adding more stock if needed. When barley is cooked, add the cream and Parmesan cheese and cook out for 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste.

4. Stuff. Line 4 small teacups, acting as molds, with plastic wrap. Line each cup with a drained cabbage leaf, leaving some of the cabbage leaf extending over the edge. Fill the cups with the cooked barley risotto and cover with the overhanging cabbage. Use the plastic wrap to remove the stuffed cabbage from the cup. Twist the plastic wrap around the cabbage/risotto to form a ball.

5. Serve. Add tomato sauce to the bottom of each dish; serve stuffed cabbage in the center. Serve while hot or reheat in the microwave.

Yesterday we suggested a baked potato bar. Today, we’re adapting the idea to mashed potatoes—specifically, a Mashed Potato Martini.

This could be the best mashed potato recipe: a fun and memorable way to serve guests.

You dish out the mashed potatoes in a Martini glass, and then provide toppings for each diner to customize the dish.

If you don’t have martini glasses, use whatever dishware/glassware you have, or consider plastic rocks glasses from the supermarket.

If you want a special St. Patrick’s Day version, head to the green toppings underneath the main list.

This recipe is courtesy of Erica Moore-Ciganovic, Chef/Owner of Bonne Bouffe Catering in Los Angeles. More wonderful potato recipes are available at IdahoPotato.com.

Mashed Potato Toppings

Offer some of these toppings—as many different choices as your time, budget and fun factor allow.

 
Green Potato Toppings

 
How many types of potatoes have you had?

Check out our spudly Potato Glossary.

Find more of our favorite vegetables and recipes.

A green twist on classic red velvet, these cupcakes take basic cake mix to delicious new heights with the addition of Pure Vanilla Extract, green food color, sour cream and cocoa powder.

This recipe, for 24 cupcakes, uses a cake mix. Feel free to bake your own favorite chocolate cupcakes from scratch.

With the mix, prep time is 20 minutes, cook time is 20 minutes.

EASY GREEN VELVET CUPCAKES

Ingredients For Cake

Ingredients For Cream Cheese Frosting (White)

Makes 2-1/2 cups. If desired, you can divide the batch in half and color one batch with 1/2 teaspoon green food color.

 
Preparation

1. Make Batter. Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat cake mix, sour cream, water, cocoa powder, oil, food color, eggs and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes.

2. Fill. Pour batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

3. Bake & Cool. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire rack.

4. Make Frosting. In large bowl, beat cream cheese with butter, sour cream and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar, until smooth. Makes 2-1/2 cups.

5. Frost & Decorate. Frost with cream cheese frosting. Decorate with sprinkles or sanding sugar, if desired.
  

Our new chip of choice. Photo by Elvira
Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Love super-crunchy chips? How about sweet potatoes?

Then you may fall in love with the new line of sweet potato chips from Food Should Taste Good.

Available in three flavors plus Original, these thick, crunchy chips are more than snacks. They can be used as the base of canapés without cracking and garnish a bowl of soup without getting soggy.

If you like to mix and match ingredients in creative ways, you’ll find many uses for them beyond enjoying them, chip by chip, from the bag or bowl.

Read the full review to discover why sweet potato chips are better for you, and why they don’t get any better than these choice chips from Food Should Taste Good.

Find more of our favorite chips in our Gourmet Snacks Section.

Since Nana stopped cooking, we rarely come across a rhubarb dish, even in locavore-based restaurants. We always see it in the store, and as time permits, make some stewed rhubarb.

But, says Kim Ode, rhubarb has a place in appetizers, breads, salads, side dishes, entrées and more.

She celebrates the vegetable in her new cookbook, Rhubarb Renaissance.

Ms. Ode has crafted some 50 sophisticated recipes, savory and sweet, showcasing the vegetable:* Rhubarb Corn Fritters, Turkey Tenderloins with RhubarBQ Sauce, Spiced Couscous with Rhubarb and Figs and Chop-Chop Sweet and Sour Stir-Fry are a few examples.

Updating Nana’s strawberry-rhubarb pie, Ms. Ode presents Salted Caramel Rhubapple Pie and Zucchini-Rhubarb Bread.

Nana would approve.

In the U.S., rhubarb is one of the first food plants to be harvested each spring; April/May is the peak season, and it grows until September (rhubarb from the Southern Hemisphere is available in October/November).

The new rhubarb cookbook is a great gift for people who like new and different ingredients—even though rhubarb has been cultivated for thousands of years in China, and grows wild on the banks of the Volga River in Russia.

In fact, the name “rhubarb” is a combination of the Ancient Latin rha, which referred to the Volga River, and barbarum, foreign; rha barbarum evolved to the Medieval Latin reubarbarum in the 15th century.
Take a bite of some rhubarb trivia.
 
*Yes, rhubarb is a vegetable. It looks like celery, but the two plants come from different botanical families. The difference between fruits and vegetables.