22 September 2008

Kasha!

A new grain has entered my life.

Last night I cooked and ate kasha for the first time. (My kids are always amazed when I can tell them I'm doing something for the first time in my life. After all, I've been around for 47 years!) My husband remembered it from his visits to Russia, where kasha is commonly eaten as a hot breakfast cereal.

A grain-like side dish, kasha was most welcome as we have spurned rice and barley for the duration of our 100-mile diet. I made it very plain, following the basic instructions on the box, and discovered it carried its own nutty, toasted flavor. It made a nice match with the carnival squash we ate.

From the literature that accompanied my mail order (Birkett Mills in the Finger Lakes region of New York) I learned that kasha is not technically a grain (not from the grass family). It's from buckwheat, a flowering plant complete with fruit and seeds. The dehulled seeds and can be eaten whole -- called buckwheat groats -- or ground to finer textures -- as in kasha.

This morning, I scooped out some leftover kasha, soaked it in milk, sprinkled it with cinnamon, and topped it with chopped apple. Two minutes in the microwave and I had breakfast.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Unknown said...

It's so marvelous to sample authentic regional fare made by local merchants. I can't wait for the summer growing season!
You'd get a kick out of this video featuring the Foxhill Cheese House, where milk, cheese, and gelato is produced.

JVA said...

Grains (grasses) are also flowering plants, with fruits and seeds, but they're in the class of monocotyledons (with one seed leaf, and parallel-veined leaves) rather than dicotyledons (with two seed leaves and net-veined leaves).