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["*Note: The recipe calls for 1-2 chicken livers, if available, and ""shreds of cool cooked chicken meat, if available"".", "Grate the zest of the lemon very finely and reserve it.", "Put the barley into a soup pan, add in 1 Tbsp.", "lemon juice and cool chicken stock.", "Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 40 min till the barley is tender with just a hint of bite to the centre of the grain.", "Add in the chicken meat, if used, to the pan towards the end of this time to heat it through gently but thoroughly.", "When the barley is nearly ready, slice the mushrooms thickly, and slice the leeks (tender green parts as well as the white) very thinly indeed so which the leaves fall into ribbony shreds.", "Cut the chicken livers, if available, into 2 to 3 pcs and saute/fry them briefly in the butter till crusty on the outside but still pink within.", "Fry the mushrooms in the fat remaining in the pan then reduce the heat and cook the leeks gently for 2 to 3 min, just shaking occasionally.", "Then add in contents of the frying pan to the soup pan.", "Add in the mushrooms and check seasoning.", "Put the chicken livers into a warmed soup tureen and crush with a fork to make a coarse paste.", "Add in the finely minced garlic, the lemon zest and most of the parsley.", "Pour on the piping warm soup, stir to mix well, sprinkle the rest of the parsley on top and serve.", "Note: If the soup is not served straight away, but allowed to get cool, the barley will go on swelling and softening; when reaheated the dish then seems more like a stew than a soup.", "I like it this way but you may prefer to lift out the grain and cold it down separately from the rest of the soup."]
