Recipe #34: kasha

 We recently got a little Ukrainian grocery store in our town, and I finally checked it out yesterday. I found many treats and treasures, but the most exciting find for me was roasted buckwheat groats, known to my people as kasha.

If the word kasha sounds vaguely familiar to you but you don’t know why, it’s because it was the running gag in an old Seinfeld episode. Everyone who entered the home of George Costanza‘s parents noted the scent of something,… was it… kasha?

Now your home can smell like kasha too!

Ingredients:

These are my basic ingredients. If I had fresh or dried mushrooms, I would add them too.

And while I was making this batch I remembered that, instead of plain water, it’s extra good with stock, so:

Directions:

Let’s ignore the directions on the bag, even though they’re simpler than mine, and come in three languages:

And instead, make kasha the way my Bubbie did.

First, pour a cup of buckwheat groats in a pot, and add a raw egg:

Turn the stove heat to medium, and start stirring nonstop:

That stirred egg is going to get foamy with all the stirring, but don’t panic and don’t stop stirring!

If you keep stirring over medium heat, the egg foam will gradually calm down and evaporate and meld with the groats. Keep stirring!

You can stop stirring when all the groats are dry and separate:

Meanwhile, chop your onion and carrot (and mushrooms if you’ve got ‘em):

And suddenly at this point, my Bubbie’s spirit reminded me to add boiling water, not cold water, so I boiled two cups of water in my kettle and added it to my pot. Thanks, Bubbie’s Spirit!

Add the chopped vegetables:

And here’s where I remembered to add a spoonful of Better Than Bouillon:

Bring it all to a boil, stir, lower the heat to a low simmer:

And put the lid on the pot, low simmering for 15 minutes:

Shoot, it’s not done. Let’s try another 10 minutes and raise the heat a bit. That simmer was maybe too low:

We’re getting there. Another 5 minutes? Yes! In other words, keep an eye on things. You want all the liquid to be absorbed and the kasha to be light and fluffy.

Bubbie’s Spirit then reminded me how much better it is with schmaltz, but I protested that I didn’t have any, and she asked vat’s the matter mit me to have no schmaltz in the fridge, and I compromised with adding butter, and she muttered in incomprehensible Yiddish:

I enjoyed my kasha with some homemade dark almond bread with labnah—a bit of a culturally mixed up meal that worked:

What a wonderfully nostalgic meal! Thanks Soika! Thanks Ukraine! Thanks Bubbie’s Spirit!

Then it’s time for clean up and oh boy, that egg and buckwheat combo really bakes onto cheap old cookware…

Bubbie’s Spirit—why hast thou forsaken me?? Oy vey!

May 2025 Update: I have since realized that the egg is completely unnecessary to this dish! It contributes hardly any extra flavour but is responsible for the horrible clean up job. Just leave it out and carry on is my updated advice!