Syrniki with Strawberry-Barley Ragoût

Ingredients

• 400 g crumbly cream cheese
• 2 tbsp raw cane sugar (30 g)
• 1 tbsp almond flour (partially sifted)
• 3 tbsp spelt flour type 1050 (+ a little extra flour for working)
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 egg (medium size)
• 3 stalks barley (300 g)
• 0.5 Vanilla pod
• 250 g strawberries
• 1 tbsp butter

Instructions

1. 1.

   Place crumbly cream cheese on kitchen paper or a clean dish towel and gently pat dry. Mix the cream cheese, 1 tbsp sugar, almond flour, spelt flour, lemon zest, and egg thoroughly. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes.

2. 2.

   Clean, wash, and cut barley into small pieces. Split the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a knife. Combine barley, vanilla seeds and pod, remaining sugar, and 50 ml water in a small pot. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes until firm yet tender. Remove from heat.

3. 3.

   Take a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture, shape into small pancakes, and dust both sides with a little flour. Use the remaining dough similarly. Heat some butter in a pan and fry the syrniki over medium heat until golden yellow; flip carefully midway. Transfer finished syrniki to keep warm. Repeat with the rest.

4. 4.

   While the syrniki fry, clean, wash, and finely chop strawberries. Add them to the barley mixture and stir. Plate the syrniki topped with the strawberry-barley ragoût and enjoy warm.