How to cook barley water

Boyboy's current suspected HFMD means that as the mother, I have to try and reduce his heatiness as much as possible, without overdoing it so his body becomes too 'liang' and stomach weak. (Actually I have no idea what I just wrote. It's something my mum keeps saying haha!)

So these past few days I've been alternating cooking barley water with chrysanthemum. Basically cos I'm stuck at home with Boy and these are in my pantry. Not sure if this is ok or still too 'liang'?

Barley water w sweetened winter melon and aromatic pandan leaves

Did some research online on barley water and am baffled by differing views. In this post I shall try to summarise, but do correct me if my conclusions are wrong.

-----------------

Holland barley VS China barley:

Holland barley is the smaller-grained one and is more cooling i.e. more potent. For rapid reduction of heatiness, use this.

But for regular drinking, use the China type. Cannot drink too frequently too, at most on alternate days. Else too 'liang'.


Amount of grains to use:

Found a post that says ratio of grains to water should be 1:10. But kiasu me uses about 1:8.


How long to cook:

Most online recipes advocate cooking for about 40 minutes til barley grains are fat and tender. My MIL added on that once that is done, you have to quickly separate the liquid from the grains, or else the grains will start absorbing it back. True.

BUT! My regular TCM sinseh informed me that we should cook it for only 10 minutes. After that the barley water is not cooling anymore; more for eating as a dessert.

So what I do is I cook the first batch for 10 minutes and give it to Boyboy to relieve his heatiness. Then I add in new water and cook a second batch for the adults to drink for fun and perhaps some slight cooling effect :p


What to do with the barley grains:

Eat as it is. Add beancurd skin and turn it into dessert :89

-----------------------------

I had a big pot of this and didn't want to waste the grains. It was lunch time so decided at the last minute to eat them up. Not very palatable eaten as it is :8( 

Then I found this link for Shiitake Barley Risotto! Mummy I Can Cook is a great humorous site to read even if you're not looking for a recipe :)

Her recipe uses dried barley to slowly cook and absorb soup stock to make risotto / orzotto. Takes about half an hour. But I skipped this major step cos my barley grains were already fat and soft after being used for two batches of barley water. And no time :p

Didn't have time to use dried shiitake mushrooms or kelp to get stock, or marinate the mushrooms in the sweet dark soya sauce and sesame oil. Had to gulp down lunch and accompany Boy for nap soon.

Instead, I stir-fried fresh shiitake mushrooms and hengcai in the sweet dark soya sauce and sesame oil. Separately I simmered the barley grains in water, bonito powder and some huadiao wine.

I'm sure the final result tastes very different from how the recipe was meant to be made. But mai hiam bey pai! Not bad leh :8) 

Will try the recipe proper when I have the time... say in like 4 years? The site even has a yummy Arancini recipe to finish up leftovers from this!