MILLET KASHA — The Kitchen Scholar

SOURCE: MARTA PISETSKA FARLEY. FESTIVE UKRAINIAN COOKING.

High-quality millet crops grow year-round and ubiquitously all over southern Ukraine, where the Pontic-Caspian Steppe annually provides long and dry summers and light rainfall and snowfall. In the old days, Slavic carters around the region relied on millet to nourish themselves from distant and tiresome travels, and they would cook the cereal grain to a porridge inside an iron kettle over an open wood fire. Final additions of unrendered salted pork fat or *salo* and foraged mushrooms flavor the neutral taste of the millet.

Ingredients

1 pound/450 grams millet

1/2 cup/120 grams diced Ukrainian salo, pancetta, OR bacon

2 1/2 cups/240 grams chopped mushrooms

2 cups/100 grams chopped onions

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon/1 gram finely chopped mint, preferably picked fresh on the same day for best results

Specific Equipment

FIne-mesh strainer

Deep-bottomed pot equipped with a lid

Large sauté pan OR skillet

Serves 8

Instructions

1. Rinse the millet thoroughly on a fine-mesh strainer with cold running water. Transfer the millet to a deep-bottomed pot and pour over 1 1/2 quarts/1.5 L water. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and cook the millet covered for 30 minutes, with occasional stirring, or until the millet has thickened to a porridge.

2. Place the salo, pancetta, or bacon on a large sauté pan or skillet and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until the pieces have fried to a crisp. Sauté in the mushrooms and onions and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the onions have softened and the mushrooms have browned. Remove the skillet or sauté pan from heat.

3. Stir the mushroom mixture into the cooked millet until well-blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in the chopped mint, if desired. Ladle the millet onto a large and deep-bottomed serving bowl or spoon into individual soup plates before serving.