Kasha vs bulgur???
Posted by yabbitgirl on Mar 19, 2007 · Member since Apr 2006 · 14266 posts
Somewhere I got the idea that kasha and bulgur are the same thing. I have some small, triangular grain that here is called "sarracen wheat" or in French "ble noir" (black wheat). Which is it, kasha or bulgur, or is it something else?
And is buckwheat the same as either one of them?
So, WHAT is kasha, and WHAT is bulgur and is buckwheat vulgar, or bulgur? :D
(I'm soooo confused.)
Bulgur is crushed parboiled wheat kernels. Kasha is another name for buckwheat. Technically, buckwheat is a grass not a wheat (and yeah, there is a distinction, but don't know what exactly).
Kashi is a brand name and since I don't buy their products, I have no idea what they contain. Buckwheat is good tasting ground into flour and used for pancakes. They are hearty. I don't care for any other way I have eaten kasha. It was once served to me with flesh and matzo ball soup. It has been soaked with a whole egg so that when it was cooked the grains separated rather than stuck together in a gluey mess. I just remember that it tasted faintly like cardboard and I have not tried it since.
OK so what I've got is definitely kasha/buckwheat. Astounding how little there is you can do with it. HAVENOLEGS, are you there? Can you help?
In Russia, Kasha refers to a lot of things--- basically hot cereals made of grains, but most commonly buckwheat, but it could also be something else--- like "Gerkylesovaia Kasha", which is just oatmeal with milk and fruit. in the rest of the world, kasha typically only means buckwheat. i think the difference between is that bulgur is cracked wheat and kasha is usually whole kernels.
hope i could help :)
ooo and there is lots of stuff you can do with buckwheat! or at least, i think so. i like to mix with rice, millet and oatmeal to make breakfast cereal. i throw handfuls of (uncooked) it into soup when i am running out of vegetables. its really good cooked (you boil it similar to oatmeal, usually takes roughly 15 minutes?) with fried potatoes on top. you can use it instead of rice in your favorite rice thing for a different texture. you can grind it fine in food processor (or like me, with a rock on your cement porch haha!) to make flour for blini pancakes....
ive submitted a few recipes for it, in attempt to dispel that "cardboard" flavour....
heres one:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=15156.0
now if we can find something that includes "kasha" and "jackfruit" we'll really have something!
Thank you havenolegs!
Now, can I ask you a very impertinent question? I see you live in a place I can niether spell nor pronounce; are you from there originally, or a transplant like me?
And do you really have no legs? (Now that IS a terribly nosy question!)
Feel free to tell me it's none of my business. On both counts! ;D :D
it pronounced "keer-gee-stan", the smallest of the 'stans :)
and no, ive got legs... i saw the movie "KIDS" while making the profile and there is a bum panhandling with a sign that says "IHAVENOLEGS" (but he does, he sitting on them) hehehe!
im technically originally american but i am from allover the place, i move around a lot and spend a lot of time living trasient (in a truck or otherwise, id like to try on a horse one day)