My brilliant idea to make fried rice only using leftover barley is apparently A Thing with recipes on the internetz. So I looked at a couple and adapted/experimented. Result: tasty and very filling. Next time, I will season more heavily; it had a good flavor, it just wasn’t hot spicy.
Cooked barley (was one cup raw, not sure how much cooked)
One block extra-firm tofu
Four eggs, separated
Sesame oil
Four large cloves garlic
[Onions do not like me, but if you like onions, chopped onion would go here]
Roughly two cups of vegetables, depending on what you have in hand: I used shaved baby carrots and a diced bell pepper
Salt
Butter
Szechuan pepper
Soy sauce
I drained the tofu while I thoroughly mixed the egg yolks into the cooked barley in a mixing bowl, following that with a small quantity of sesame oil. Then I salted and peppered the tofu. Marinating the tofu ahead of time would not have gone amiss.
I diced the garlic and bell pepper, and shaved the carrots on a mandoline.
I cooked the egg whites in butter, then scooped them into a bowl. I gently fried the tofu and put it on a plate.
I added more butter to the pan and cooked the garlic and vegetables with the pepper and some salt until the pepper bits no longer tasted raw and the garlic was toasted. I dumped in the barley/egg yolk/sesame oil mixture, stirred everything together, and covered it for a couple of minutes. I did that several times until some of the barley was lightly browned. I stirred in the cooked egg whites and tofu, heated it through, and stirred in the soy sauce.
I used a deep nonstick skillet. I think with my iron skillet I could maybe get the barley slightly crispy, so it would be more like fried rice.
I do not think separating the eggs is necessary, but I saw the yolk/rice trick in a YouTube video and wanted to try it! It worked great.
