Bündner Gerstensuppe

Zorra from Kochtopf lives in Spain and she is sometimes homesick of Switzerland. For this reason she organised a blog event: Red, white or Swiss, also because soon it is the Swiss National Day on the 1st of August. It is summer, however I decided to cook a soup for this event, that is more a winter dish. I am talking about the Bündner Gerstensuppe with Bündnerfleisch that is a barley soup with dried beef. Bündnerfleisch or Viande des Grisons, is an air dried meat that is produced in the Grisons canton of Switzerland and that is the place where this soup comes from.

Ingredients:
100 g barley
1 onion
1/2 celery
2 carrots
2 potatoes
1 leek
2 tablespoon oil
1,5 liter chicken stock
salt, pepper


Soak the barley over night. Chop onion, celery, carrots and potatoes. Slice leek.
Sauté chopped veggies with olive oil until lightly soften (at this part you can add smoked ham or bacon, but I left this out because it is summer). Add barley and pour chicken stock and bring to boil, cook it for 2 hours on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. To bind to soup you can mix 100 ml heavy cream with two egg yolks and add it, but do not cook anymore!