Kasha

Cooking time —
Complication —

Kasha (or Russian porridge) is one of the most widespread dishes of Russian cuisine. Our meals are unimaginable without kasha. However, kasha is not just a meal but also a ceremonial dish. Some peoples of our country welcomed newborns with kasha called "Babkina" ("Grandma"s"). By all means kasha was cooked by bride and groom and was an obligatory part of a wedding ceremony, thus the expression "you won"t cook kasha with him (her)" meaning "you won"t get anywhere with him (her)". Kasha (kutia) was also eaten at a funereal repast. You can say that kasha accompanied a person along their course of life. For people of different income kasha was an ordinary meal. Nearly everyone knows the Russian saying "Shchi and kasha is our food". This is true, and has always been, perhaps. Kasha is nutritious and digests easily. It can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Both children, and adults equally enjoy it.

Buckwheat Kasha

(for 4 portions)
1 cup buckwheat
2 1/2 cups water
50g butter
salt

Cooking:
Measure, sort out and fry buckwheat. Bring water to boil, add salt, butter, buckwheat, stir and cook at low heat on a cast-iron support. When the buckwheat absorbs the water, put the pot (cast iron pot) into the oven, and cook until ready. Serve the kasha with milk and butter.

Guryevskaya Kasha

(for 6 portions)
100g semolina
500ml milk
50g crushed walnuts
100g sugar
50g butter
1 egg
10 apricots
vanillin

Cooking
Bring milk to boil, add a little salt, stir in semolina and make viscous kasha. Chill down a little, and add yolks mixed with sugar, whisked egg whites, vanillin and walnuts fried in butter. Mix everything thoroughly. Pour cream into a shallow wide saucepan and put it in the oven preheated to 150 C to make cream skin. Transfer the skin to a dish as it appears. Put most of the kasha in a buttered frying pan. Put a layer of sliced and cored apricots over it, then a layer of cream skin, and continue alternating these layers depending on the amount of the skin you have. The top layer is kasha. Put the kasha in the oven and bake at 180 C until a golden crust appears. Sprinkle the prepared dish with crushed walnuts. The kasha is served with the sauce prepared as follows: grate apricots, mix them with sugar, add water and boil until it thickens.

Pearl Barley Kasha

(for 4 portions)
1 cup pearl barley
3 cups water
50g butter or lard
salt

Cooking
Measure and rinse pearl barley, add hot water and bring to boil. Drain the water, add hot salted water again, add fat, stir, and cover with a lid. Cook in the oven until the kasha is well stewed and completely absorbs the water. Stir again. If the kasha is cooked this way, it does not get viscous, burned or over-dried. Serve the kasha with milk, butter or lard cracklings with onions.

Pearl Barley Kasha with Meat

(for 4 portions)
1 cup pearl barley
2 cups water
150g pork
1 onion
salt
ground black pepper

Cooking
Slice high-fat pork fine and fry it with onions until brownish. Earlier, put pearl barley into cold water for 2-3 hours, then rinse thoroughly. Put the meat with onions in a cast-iron pot or pot, add water, salt and pepper, bring to boil, then add pearl barley and cover with a lid. Cook in the oven or Russian oven until ready.

Russian Cream Semolina

(for 4 portions)
350g semolina
1L cream
35g sugar
200g butter
salt

Cooking
Pour fresh cream into a pan and start heating. Every time the cream rises, transfer the skin to a saucer. Carefully, little by little, add semolina to the remaining cream. Then add sugar, whisked butter and the removed cream skin. Stir well, bring to boil, put on a buttered baking tray, and place it for 5 minutes in a preheated oven. When sliced, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in butter, this thick semolina on milk is perfect with any jam, berries grated with sugar, lemon or cherry syrup. Children enjoy such a kasha immensely.

Kasha with Oranges

(for 4 portions)
3 oranges
500ml milk
3 tbsp sugar or honey
1 tbsp orange liqueur (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
50g almond
150g oatmeal
150g yoghurt
100g high-fat milk

Cooking
Scald one orange, peel it, and slice the peel. Boil milk with orange peel, sugar, liqueur, cinnamon and almond in a pan. Add oatmeal and cook for 10 minutes at low heat to get swelled. Chill the pan down. Combine yoghurt and high-fat milk. Peel all oranges, and divide them into segments. Put aside six segments, chop the others and put into oatmeal with the juice. Put in the refrigerator for an hour, and then top the dish with the orange segments you have put aside.

"Home" Rice Kasha

(for 6 portions)
2 cups rice
1L milk
3 tbsp sugar
butter
vanilla sugar
100g dried apricots
100g rice
100g dried apples
cognac

Cooking
First prepare the fruit. Slice dried apricots and apples and combine them with raisins. Add cognac and leave to rest a little. Fill a big saucepan with water, bring to boil, add rinsed rice, cook 5-6 minutes, and then drain the rice with a colander. Place the fruit on the bottom of the saucepan, put the rice upon it, carefully pour in hot milk, add sugar, vanilla and salt. Bring to boil and cook 5 to 10 minutes. Take off the heat, leave to rest 20 minutes, and serve to the table. Before you start eating put a piece of butter in the kasha and stir thoroughly.

Tykovnik (Pumpkin Kasha)

1 cup millet
2 cups water
2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup cream
1 egg salt to taste

Cooking
Sort out millet, rinse 5 to 6 times in boiled water until the water is clean after rinsing. Fill with hot water, put on the heat, add salt, skim. Quickly evaporate all the water before the millet boils soft, add hot milk and continue cooking – first, at medium, and then, at low heat until the kasha thickens completely. Stir in pumpkin puree, a finely chopped boiled egg, half the amount of butter, and put the kasha in a buttered pot. Cook 15 minutes in the oven. Serve with cream.

Russian Kasha

350g semolina
1L cream
35g sugar
200g butter
salt

Cooking:
Pour fresh cream in a pan and start heating. Every time the cream rises, transfer the skin to a saucer. Carefully, little by little, add semolina to the remaining cream. Then add sugar, whisked butter and the removed cream skin. Stir well, bring to boil, put on a buttered baking tray, and placed it for 5 minutes in a preheated oven. When sliced, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in butter, this thick semolina on milk is perfect with any jam, berries grated with sugar, lemon or cherry syrup. Children enjoy such a kasha immensely.

Koliva

2 cups fine ground barley
3L water
1 cup milk
3/4-1 cup poppy seeds
2-3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp cranberry or currant jam

Cooking:
Rinse fine ground barley, boil in water at medium heat skimming all the time. As soon as the barley starts letting out its slime, drain it, put in a different dish, add milk and cook until the kasha is soft and thick stirring slowly all the time. Separately, prepare poppy seeds: scald them with boiling water leaving in it for 5 minutes, drain, rinse, scald again, drain as soon as droplets of fat start to appear on the water surface. Crush the poppy seeds in a porcelain mortar adding 1/2 teaspoonful of boiled water to each tablespoon of poppy seeds. Combine the poppy seeds with the thickened and softened barley kasha, add honey, warm up 5 to 7 minutes at low heat, stirring continuously, take off the heat, and dress with jam.

Bon appetite!