To me nothing says yummy and warms you up on the inside like a steamy hot bowl of homemade soup on a cold day. This one is definatly no exception. It is pure love from the very first bite to the last in every delicious bowl of soup. I for one love my soup chunky and not salty or watery like a can of soup on the supermarket shelves. When you open a can all you can see is broth with a ton of salt added and too little of the good stuff. This is why I love homemade soup because I get everything that I want in a soup that is nice and hearty and going to stay with you and keep you full longer.
Before we start making this yummy soup add 1 pinch each of black peppercorns and celery seed and grind thim in to a coarse powder. Turn the heat on high and add to a pressure cooker 1/4 cup of olive oil. Add 1 onion or shallot chopped, fry until it is a little brown. Add 2 cloves of garlic minced, 1 kg or 1 lb of beef stew meat and fry this until it is browned. Add 3 bay leaves, the contents from the mortar and pestle, 1 pinch each of thyme, marjarom, rosemary, terragon, 3 pinches of either seasoned salt or vegtea seasoning.
Stir and add the rest of the ingredents such as 1/2 bag of mixed vegetables, 1/4 cup of barley that has been rinsed, 2 liters or 1/2 gallon of water, place the lid on the pressure cooker and let cook for 30 minutes after the safety button pops up for 30 minutes. Turn heat off and let pressure escape. Open to check and see if everything is nice and soft. If it is still a little tough then check the level of the liquid in the pressure cooker. If it is a little low then add 2 more cups of water and place the lid back on the cooker and let pressure build again to repeat the process for another 20 minutes and turn off the heat to let pressure escape once again.
Serve this with thick crusty bread and or crackers. I hope you will enjoy this and am looking forward to your comments.
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