Kasha

Buckwheat kasha
Type	Porridge, oatmeal
Region or state	Eastern Europe
Main ingredients	Cereal (buckwheat, wheat, barley, oats, millet or rye)
Media: Kasha

In English, kasha usually^[a][b][c] refers to the pseudocereal buckwheat or its culinary preparations. In Eastern European cuisine, kasha can apply to any kind of cooked grain. It can be baked but most often is boiled, either in water or milk, and therefore the term coincides with the English definition of 'porridge', but the word can also refer to the grain before preparation, which corresponds to the definition of 'groats'. This understanding of kasha concerns mainly Belarus (каша), the Czech Republic (kaše), Lithuania (košė), Poland (kasza), Romania and the Republic of Moldova (cașa), Russia (каша), Slovakia (kaša), Slovenia (kaša), Kazakhstan, and Ukraine (каша), where the term, besides buckwheat, can apply to wheat, barley, oats, millet, rye and even rice. Kashas have been an important element of Slavic diet for at least 1,000 years.^[1]

This English-language usage probably originated with Jewish immigrants, as did the form קאַשי kashi (literally translated as "porridges").^[2]

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  Buckwheat grains
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  Buckwheat with onions

In Ashkenazi Jewish culture

As an Ashkenazi-Jewish comfort food, kasha is often served with onions and brown gravy on top of farfalle, known as kasha varnishkes.^[3] Kasha is a popular filling for knishes^[4] and is sometimes included in matzah-ball soup.^{[citation needed]}

In Czechia

In Czech the cognate kaše (Czech pronunciation: [kaʃɛ]) has a wider meaning that also encompasses mashed potato (bramborová kaše), pease pudding (hrachová kaše), etc.

In Poland

In Polish, cooked buckwheat groats are referred to as kasza gryczana. Kasza can apply to many kinds of groats: millet (kasza jaglana), barley (kasza jęczmienna), pearl barley (kasza jęczmienna perłowa, pęczak), oats (kasza owsiana), as well as porridge made from farina (kasza manna).^[5] Bulgur can be also be referred to as a type of kasza in Polish (kasza bulgur).

As Polish blood sausage is prepared with buckwheat, barley or rice, it is called kaszanka (kasha sausage).

Annual (2013) per capita consumption of groats in Poland is approx. 1.56 kg (3.4 lb) per year (130 g (4.6 oz) a month).^[6]

In Russia

The largest gross buckwheat consumption per capita is in Russia, with 15 kg (33 lb) per year, followed by Ukraine, with 12 kg (26 lb) per year.^[7] The share of buckwheat in the total consumption of cereals in Russia is 20%.^[8]

In Russian, buckwheat is referred to formally as гречневая каша (grechnevaya kasha), or colloquially as гречка (grechka). Buckwheat grain and buckwheat groats are known as гречневая крупа (grechnevaya krupa). Corresponding words in Yiddish are gretshkes/greytshkelach and retshkes/reytshkelach.

The most popular kasha recipe in Russia is that of crumbly cooked buckwheat seasoned with butter. Buckwheat kasha can be eaten at any time of the day, either as a separate dish or as a side dish. Other popular kasha recipes are made with millet, semolina (манная каша) and oatmeal. Cooked with milk and sugar, they are often seen as a breakfast staple, especially for children. Pearl barley porridge is less popular but also eaten. High quality tushonka can be used to season kasha as well, since tushonka is rich in flavor and full gravy-like jelly, but the jelly needs some heating to melt into kasha.

Kasha is one of the Russian national dishes, together with shchi. This fact is commemorated in the Russian saying, "щи да каша – пища наша" (shchi da kasha – pishcha nasha), which literally translates as "shchi and kasha are our food" or "cabbage soup and porridge are what we eat". The expression has an implied figurative meaning of "it is enough to eat those two meals to live" or "it doesn't matter what happens in Russia at large, we still live the same way."

Butter is often eaten with most kasha recipes, hence another Russian saying: "кашу маслом не испортишь", which translates to "you'll never spoil kasha with a lot of butter".^[9]