Mulgipuder

Ingredients

• Pearl barley — rinsed250 g
• Potatoes1 kg
• Smoked pork belly — diced250 g
• Onion2
• Butter50 g
• Milk150 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rinse the barley and boil it in salted water for an hour, until soft.

   62 min

2. 2

   Add the roughly cut potato to the same pot and cook twenty minutes more.

   22 min

3. 3

   Render the pork belly to crackling, add the onion and fry until golden.

   14 min

4. 4

   Drain most of the water from the barley and potato, keeping half a cup.

   3 min

5. 5

   Mash with the butter and milk, leaving the barley grains still visible. Season with salt and pepper.

   8 min

6. 6

   Serve into bowls and spoon the crackling, onion and rendered fat over the top.

   4 min

About the dish

Barley and potato cook in one pot, but they go in at different times: the grain needs an hour, the potato twenty minutes. Together they never both come right.

It is mashed only until the grains are still distinguishable. A smooth purée is a different dish with a different texture.

Mulgipuder comes from southern Mulgimaa, where barley was cheaper than potato. Today it is on Estonia's list of intangible heritage.

Worth knowing

• — The barley can be soaked overnight; it then cooks in forty minutes rather than an hour.
• — A blender is no use here: barley turns to paste. Only a masher.
• — The next day it is cut into slices and fried. In Estonia that counts as a second dish rather than a reheat.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

18 g

Fat

26 g

Carbs

64 g

More from Estonia

• Kama — A dessert of roasted mixed-grain flour stirred into kefir. Estonian breakfast and summer pudding at once.