Mushroom Barley Soup

I love mushrooms and husband loves barley (but mushrooms...not so much). In my effort to cook healthier fare, after the Christmas gluttony, I turned to my trusted recipe source-- America's Test Kitchen. This isn't inexpensive to make, when you consider that dried Porcini Mushrooms costs about $80.00 a pound. It cost aobut $5.00 for the porcinis, which were a bit of a challenge to find. Okay, it doesn't break the bank but once you buy creminis and shitaki's (I chose to forgo portobellos), you're spending roughly $15.00. I really liked the technique (new to me) of sweating the mushrooms, and then caramelizing them until they are dry. This brings out the mushroom flavor. Instead of adding the barley and liquid, at the end, and cooking it for 50 minutes (I was hungry) I used my pressure cooker and it took 20 minutes to be ready to eat. One last note: adding a squeeze of fresh lemon gave a perfect balance of acidity to this soup. Flavor-wise, there is a lot of mushroom flavor which my son and I liked. My husband had a sad face, as he's just not as fond of fungi as we are. Next time, I might add a dash of sherry to give the soup a little acidity... maybe a few more calories, but just a dash. Overall, a good and comforting soup.