Buckwheat and Kasha

I noticed in a piece in the alternative Russian site, Meduza.io, that the most hoarded item in Russia is buckwheat. Toilet paper and paper towels are on the list but lower down. Yesterday, we were trying to explain to some American friends who had no clue what buckwheat is. I decided to post my family recipe for kasha (modified a bit by me). There are other ways to cook it, but this is mine.

You can buy buckwheat groats (the fruit of the buckwheat plant, incidentally, not a grain) in most grocery stores, either in a box or in bulk. Make sure you get toasted buckwheat (should be brown) and not green buckwheat. You can toast it yourself, but it is almost always sold toasted.

Ingredients

2 cups of toasted buckwheat groats (sometimes I mix in some quinoa)
2 extra large eggs.
10 cloves of garlic
6 large mushrooms
2 red peppers
1 red onion
4 cups of chicken boullion
olive oil (or your preferred cooking oil)
butter
(optional: I like to steam sweet Chinese sausage on top)

In a very large sauce pan with a cover, sauté the garlic cloves in olive oil. If you coat the sauce pan with a teaspoon of liquid lecithin first and spread it with a paper towel, it will be much easier to clean up afterwards. Once the cloves are hot, you can easily remove the skin with a wooden spoon. Press lightly on them and the skin slides right off. Chop the red onion and sauté it in the pan with the garlic after the skin is removed. Do the same with the red peppers and mushrooms. Once they are all softened, remove them from the pan and put them in a bowl.

Next, turn the heat up higher on the sauce pan. Add more olive oil. Put the two eggs in a bowl and beat them. Then stir in the 2 cups of buckwheat groats with the wooden spoon. Put that mixture in the sauce pan and stir until the eggs are absorbed and the grains separate pretty well. Turn down the heat, add the 4 cups of hot boullion. Stir well and then stir in the sauted vegetables. Take a small slice of butter and cut it into 9 squares. Spread that evenly on top and stir it in as it melts. The sausage goes on top. Cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 5 minutes. It's ready to eat.

You can refrigerate what you don't eat, and it microwaves well. You can it it with dinner, especially poultry. You can eat it for breakfast. Heat it up in a bowl and add a sweetener, milk, and berries if you want.