Kasha Varniskes, buckwheat groats cooked in chicken stock, mixed with deeply caramelized onions (preferably caramelized in chicken fat) and bow tie noodles. Often served with Mushroom Gravy, it makes it a terrific and filling vegetarian entrée, but it is also great aside roast chicken or a brisket. Kasha Varniskes is one of the many old fashioned recipes seeing a recent resurgence due to a renewed interested in Schmaltz and Groats ( which would be a fabulous name for a Klezmer Band BTW). <br /> <br />This is the last meal I cooked for my father. I caramelized onions, toasted groats in egg and boiled noodles for him after what would prove to be the last of the futile radiation treatments. It was the most loving dinner I could think to make. It comforted us all, even Finnegan the dog was lulled into a few moment s of gustatorily induced calm. I soothed my father and his sister on that awful rainy night with memories their mother Bella. Kasha Varniskes remains for all of us a definitive hug from her. <br /> <br />Kasha takes time, there is a process, the onions themselves take up to 45 minutes to get to that dark, sweet place, that most Jewish of all tastes…the taste of onions cooked slowly in chicken fat. This is what I imagine Jewish Quarters, Shtetls, and Ghettos have smelled of for thousands of years, it is the smell that reminds us all of home, quintessential, primal HOME. <br /> <br />I not ashamed to say that I weep openly and unabashedly now while I make it… the salt of my tears mingling with onions, the smell of toasting kasha bringing a rush of love and pain and memories of good times at the table with those I loved the most and of nights full of fear and loneliness. I make this every year on Yom Kippur and when I feel very far away from my family. <br />

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