Mushrooms and pearl barley with macadamia bread sauce

Ingredients

• 200 g pearl barley
• 50 ml olive oil
• 1 pinch chopped flat-leaf parsley
• salt and pepper
• 200 g oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 200 g enoki mushrooms
• 200 g Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
• 1 French shallot, chopped
• 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1 lemon, zested, to serve
• baby herbs, to serve

Macadamia bread sauce

• 300 g sourdough bread, roughly chopped
• 200 ml water
• 40 ml olive oil
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 10 macadamia nuts

Instructions

To make the bread sauce, put the bread, water, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and nuts in a food processor and blend until smooth. Season to taste and set aside.

Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil, add the barley, then simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Drain, tip the barley back into the pan and add the olive oil and parsley and season with salt and pepper.

While the barley is cooking, sauté the mushrooms and shallot in the grapeseed oil for about 2 minutes until golden. Check the seasoning.

Spoon the barley into warm bowls, top with the mushrooms, add a small scoop of the bread sauce and sprinkle with the lemon zest and lots of baby herbs.

Recipes and images from Three Blue Ducks by Mark LaBrooy & Darren Robertson, published by Plum, rrp $39.99.