Cooking with beer: Pan Fried Beer Marinated Pork with Pearl Barley and Soy Beans

This was sumbitted for the cooking with beer competition by Gregg, it sounds and looks delicious! Thanks to Gregg for taking part, you can find a bit more about him here

Serves 2 hungry people

Great pic and lovely sounding recipe

• 4 Lean Pork Steaks or 2 Pork chops
• 2 Cloves Garlic (chopped)
• 1 tsp Fennel seeds
• 1 tsp Course Seasalt
• Juice and zest of a Lemon
• 100ml Beer (I use whatever is at hand, or whatever I’m drinking at the time)
• 2 tbps Olive Oil
• 200g Pearl Barley
• 1 Onion (finely chopped)
• 200g Frozen Soya Beans (or Peas if you so desire)
• 600ml Chicken Stock
• 1 good pinch of Dried Thyme
• 1 good pinch of Chilli Flakes
• 1 Bay Leaf
• A Bunch of Fresh Flat Leaf Parsley chopped retain some for the garnish
• Small knob of Butter

Method

1. In a mortar and pestle add the garlic, seasalt and fennel seeds. Grind to a rough paste. Mix with zest and juice of the lemon and beer and use to marinade the pork for 30 mins.
2. In a saucepan heat half the olive oil over a medium heat and gently fry the onions until they are soft. Add the thyme, bay leaf and chilli and cook for a further minute. Add the barley and toss until it is well coated in oil, add the stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat cover the pan and simmer for 35 minutes until the barley is tender and absorbed all the stock. Add the Soy Beans or Peas for the last 5 minutes to heat through. As it is taken off the heat stir through the parsley. Taste and season.
3. Heat the remaining oil over a high heat in a pan and shake the marinade from the pork. Fry the pork until cooked through and lightly browned, usually takes no more then 5 minutes but it really depends on the size of the steaks. Remove the Pork from the heat to rest for a few minutes.
4. Serve the pork on top of the barley garnished with the retained parsley, and enjoy with a glass of the beer you cooked with.