These are made with cooked pearl barley that are left over after boiling barley tea.  As the barley are already cooked to al dente (I boil them for 40 minutes before straining), the cooking time here is almost halved, compared to using uncooked risotto rice.  I vaguely followed the recipes from here and here to make my own single serving version.

MUSHROOM AND BARLEY RISOTTO
INGREDIENTS

1 cup cooked pearl barley, cooled
2 stalks of asparagus
1 handful mushrooms of your choice**
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine
1 cup hot water/ stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
Grated parmesan cheese
Salt and black pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

01. Cut asparagus into 2 inch pieces and then half them again.

02. Depending on the type of mushroom you have chosen, roughly chop large capped mushrooms, or remove the tougher base for longer stemmed ones.

03. In a pan, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add mushrooms to cook.  Turn off heat and set aside once mushrooms has turned soft and started to sweat.

04. In a separate pot or large skillet, heat up remaining olive oil, and saute the finely chopped garlic till fragrant.

05. Add cooked barley and mix well for 1 minute.

06. Add wine, and stir till most of the wine evaporates.

07. Add asparagus and 1/2 cup of hot water/stock, and wait for the liquid to be absorbed, before adding the remaining liquid.

08. When the barley has absorbed most of the liquid, pour in the cooked mushrooms plus its gravy, stir to mix well.

09. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper, lastly stir in cream and grated parmesan.

10. Transfer onto plate, topped with more pepper and grated parmesan.  Serve immediately.

NOTES TO SELF

* I used shimeji or brown button mushrooms