Kasha Varnishkes

I have a bad habit of buying lots of grains, throwing them into the pantry, and then forgetting about them for awhile. I'm trying to get better about using them up on a regular basis these days, making meals out of things we already own rather than buying all new ingredients for every recipe. Back in March (I wrote most of this post then; why I never finished it, I have no idea), I wanted to use up a bag of kasha imported from Poland that we bought at a European supermarket in Queens. For my first attempt at working with kasha, I decided to adapt this recipe for kasha varnishkes, a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish.

Ingredients:

If you're unfamiliar with kasha, they're also known as "buckwheat roasted groats." It has a distinct nutty flavor. It's kind of hard to describe its unique flavor since I've been eating kasha in various forms (although mostly knishes) since I was a kid, so to me it just "tastes like kasha."

For the kasha varnishkes dish, you need:

- 3 large onions ($1.50)
- 10 oz white button mushrooms ($1.79)
- 3 garlic cloves ($0.10)
- 2 tbsp butter ($0.20)
- 2 large eggs ($0.36)
- 14 oz buckwheat roasted groats (kasha) ($2.19)
- 5 cups water ($0)
- 3 tbsp chicken bouillon ($0.90)
- salt to taste ($0.05)
- pepper to taste (plentiful amount) ($0.10)
- 16 oz farfalle ($1.50)
- 1 tbsp chopped cilantro ($0.45)

This recipe cost a little over $9, but it made a massive amount. Between the farfalle and the kasha, this was a very filling dish. It lasted for multiple meals.

Process:

This was a fairly time consuming recipe even though it wasn't that difficult. It took much longer than the estimate in the recipe I started from for the kasha to soften enough, so we ate late again.

1. Melt butter in heavy frying pan (that has a cover). Add onions and saute until they begin to soften. Add mushrooms and garlic and saute until everything is softened.

2. While vegetables are softening, look through kasha for any debris. Slightly beat 2 eggs in a medium bowl.

3. Stir kasha in to the eggs. Mix, making sure all grains are coated with the egg.

4. Remove onions and mushrooms from pan to separate plate.

5. Add kasha-egg mixture to the same frying pan. Flatten grains into the pan, and stir and break up egg coated kasha with wooden spoon for 2-4 minutes or until the egg has dried on the kasha and the kernels brown and mostly separate.

6. Add 3 cups of water, 2 tbsp of bouillon, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.

7. Add onions and mushrooms and stir together with the kasha. Add the remaining water and bouillon. Once boiling, lower heat to low and cover.

8. Cook the kasha-onion-mushroom mixture over low heat until kasha has reached desired softness. Check every 10 minutes or so. It took at least 30 minutes for our kasha to soften.

9. While kasha is cooking, make farfalle according to the package directions.

10. Add cooked farfalle to the softened kasha and stir.

11. Adjust seasoning of combined mixture and sprinkle with cilantro to serve.

Review:

This had a really mild flavor that tasted mostly like chicken broth and kasha. The onions and mushrooms were there, but most of their flavor seemed to dilute a bit during the cooking process. With everything that was in it, we thought it would be more flavorful, but similar to the mujadara, it was more bland than we thought it would be.

The most distinctive thing about this dish was that it was really filling and kind of heavy. That's probably one reason it's lasted so long in people's cooking repertoires - simple ingredients that are easy to find and very filling for a low price. Definitely a good budget meal, but I need to figure out what to add to up the flavor a bit.

Although I did like this, especially its healthiness and heartiness, I don't think I'll be making it again for a while. The recipe made a lot of kasha varnishkes. After eating it for dinner, I think I ate it for lunch for the rest of the week, so I got a little tired of eating kasha varnishkes. Still a good dish, worth making, and I'm glad I did make it. But I need a break from kasha...