Mushroom Kasha

Kasha is a traditional dish in Russia and Poland. It can be made with buckwheat oats or pearl barley. This version uses barley.

It is a pleasant-looking and tasting dish, with an earthy, nutty flavour, a little reminiscent of wild rice. I find it goes very well with sausages, gammon and braised pigeon. The original recipe uses dried porcini, which have a pungent flavour and smell of their own, but I have substituted ordinary cultivated mushrooms with satisfactory results. The only d