Rosie Makes A Cool Barley Salad With Cucumber, Zucchini, And Squash.

Rosie's Soiree with Xmaskatie and Glowria continues.
 In case you missed the first course of our little dinner party, here are the spring rolls we made. On to the next course. With the spate of squash and zucchini issuing from the garden, I'm trying to come up with creative ways in which to utilize these oh so very versatile vegetables.

My ingredients:
1/2 cup rinsed barley
 1 zucchini, slightly peeled
1 squash, slightly peeled 
1 cucumber, slightly peeled and seeded

Here's Dixie relaxing. By the way, these random pictures of the puppies are in the order in which I prepare a dish. I'm always watching them while I'm fixin' sumpin' so I take pictures of them.

I poured the barley into boiling chicken stock (You could use water.), partially covered the pan, and cooked for about 20 minutes. While the barley was cooking ...

I chopped the squash and zuke into a 1/4 inch dice.

Pretty.

I diced the cuke.

After 20 minutes, I poured the barley into a colander and cooled off with a nice spray.

I brought a pot of salted water to a boil and poured in the diced squash and zucchini and blanched for 30 seconds.

I drained the squash and zucchini in a colander and immediately poured into an ice water bath to stop the cooking and seal the fresh colors.

Drained barley goes into bowl.

Add in the diced cucumber.

Toss in the diced squash and zucchini.

And make the dressing.

2 TB white vinegar and a small sprig of fresh tarragon from the garden

Mince the tarragon and muddle it in the vinegar.

Bring in some mayo, some more fresh tarragon,
and about 3-4 tablespoons of fresh dill.
 Salt and pepper.

Pour the tarragon vinegar into 1/4 cup of mayonnaise.
Add salt and pepper and whisk.

Pour tarragon vinegar/mayo mixture into barley and veggies.

Add in minced dill and more tarragon to taste.
 Refrigerate and let flavors marry and grow.

I love this stuff.

It's cool. It's crisp. It's bright. It's fresh. It's good. Do yourself a favor and try this. The flavors merge and become more. You want to keep tasting it to be sure you got all the flavors. It's quite a nice dish especially in this oppressively hot weather. Please stay tuned for my black bean salad.