[Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha

[Lonnie D. Harvel]

Greetings to you all!

Tonight I made a practice run on the beef soup with kasha that I will be 
making for a Traveller's Fare on 11/19. This is my first use of kasha 
and I had some surprises.

First, I put in what I thought to be a small amount, a scant 1 cup, into 
a soup that had about 2 1/2 quarts of liquid. Poof, instant porridge, or 
something close to it. There was about 2 cups of free liquid after a 20 
minute simmer. I expect the leftovers in the fridge will absorb it all 
by morning.

Second, the kasha has a distinct flavor, stonger than the barley, rice, 
and oats I have cooked with previously. The soup was good, but there was 
something that was not quite right in the flavor. My guess is that it 
was the small amount of cinnamon that I put into the beef when I cooked 
it earlier.  (soup recipe, from previous post)

So, what would be a good combination of spices/herbs for a soup of beef, 
onion, carrot, and kasha?

Thanks,
Aoghann.

(For the Beef Soup, I am slow cooking the beef in advance with salt, 
black pepper, a touch of garlic, and a touch of cinnamon. (15 pounds so 
far). I then freeze it with its juice. The complete soup is made with 
onions, carrots, beef stock and kasha.)