Confessions of a buckwheat snob

March 29, 2011 update: thanks to the helpful comments from my wonderful readers, I found a good buckwheat option at Whole Foods: Pocono Kasha, so there is no need to go searching for a Russian grocery store as I wrote in this post.
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Cooking advice focused on the origin of ingredients makes me skeptical.  Do you have to use tomatoes from Italy for your pizza sauce or French butter for your tart dough?  Absolutely not!  Of course, I am not Italian or French, so it's easy for me to adopt such a casual attitude toward their ingredients (though I do think that American prosciutto sucks).  But would I be able to be as open minded when it comes to buckwheat -- a quintessentially Russian grain that I started eating before I got all my teeth?

I had a bad experience with American buckwheat a few years ago and since then I stuck to the buckwheat from the Russian stores.  But preparing for the Beans and Grains class made me think twice about buying Russian buckwheat.  Did I really want to tell my students that they have to go to a specialty store to buy something as basic as a grain?  Surely there was a way to make buckwheat from the bulk isle of Whole Foods taste good.  

I decided to try the obvious first -- cook it just like I would Russian buckwheat.  The result was a mush covered in something that resembled wet dust.  No wonder most Americans have such a lowly opinion of this grain.  

I noticed that the groats were not as even in color in the Whole Foods buckwheat as they were in the one I was used to cooking.  Some were brown, some beige, and some slightly green.  

Whole Food Buckwheat

Russian Buckwheat

I was guessing that the Whole Foods groats weren't roasted evenly (even the darkest ones were not roasted enough).  I put the buckwheat in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roasted it in 375F oven for 15 minutes.  It turned darker and the green color was gone.  

Now I decided to tackle the wet dust problem.  I noticed that Whole Foods buckwheat groats were covered in a fine brown powder.  I was guessing it was the result of some of the groats getting crushed and was hoping that washing and draining the groats would help.  

Unfortunately, all my efforts didn't amount to much.  Roasting produced a slightly more flavorful buckwheat, but it did not improve the texture.  While some groats were toothsome, many turned to mush.  Washing barely made a dent on the wet dust problem.  I tried reducing the amount of water.  I tried both stove top and oven preparations.  No matter what I did, I couldn't get the groats to cook evenly and keep their shape.  

Cooked Whole Foods Buckwheat

Cooked Russian Buckwheat

Finally, I gave up.  If you want to cook buckwheat, buy it from a Russian store.  In the Boston area, many Armenian stores carry Russian buckwheat as well.  I always try to find groats that are as dark as possible.  But not black!  If they are black, it means they are still in their shell and that doesn't taste good.  I've never seen Russian buckwheat sold this way, but I have seen it in an American specialty store recently, so now I know to warn you that you want your groats to be whole but without the shell.  

Sept 17, 2013 update -- since the original post was published I found an alternative way to cook buckwheat.  Surprisingly, it's almost identical to the way I cook sushi rice.

Basic Buckwheat Recipe  (from Sept 17, 2013)

1 cup whole buckwheat groats
1 3/4 cups water (2 cups for completely tender results)
1.5 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (3/4 tsp table salt)
1-2 Tbsp butter

1. Pour buckwheat in a single layer on a white plate (as much as will fit), remove bad grains and anything that looks suspicious.  Repeat with remaining buckwheat.
2. Rinse buckwheat in a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl.  Add enough water to fill the bowl.  Swoosh the buckwheat around in the sieve.  Lift buckwheat with the sieve and put in a 2 quart pot.  Add water and salt.  Cover, set over high heat, and bring to a boil watching the pot carefully.  Don’t uncover.  As soon as you see small amount of steam escape from the cover, turn down the heat to very low (for electric stove, have another burner preheated to low and move a pot to that burner).  
3. Cook 25 minutes.  
4. Take off heat.  Keep covered.  Wrap the pot in a towel and let it sit 30 minutes.
5. Stir in butter and serve.  Buckwheat goes extremely well with cooked onions, mushrooms, and duck.

Basic Buckwheat Recipe (originally written in this post)

1.5 Tbsp butter (plus additional for serving)

1 cup whole buckwheat groats (if possible produced in Russia)

1 2/3 cups boiling water (subtract 2 Tbsp from that if you want a more toothsome buckwheat)

1.5 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (3/4 tsp table salt)

Note: buckwheat tastes best cooked in the oven, but if your pot can't go in the oven, you can cook it on the stove top.

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Set an oven-proof sauce pan over medium heat.  Add 1.5 Tbsp butter and wait for it to melt.  Cook the butter until it just starts to turn brown, swirling the pan frequently.  It will take a couple of minutes.
3. Add the buckwheat and cook stirring until it's completely coated in butter and  gives of a nutty aroma, 2-3 minutes.  
4. Take off heat and add water and salt.  Be carefully as the water will spatter. 
5. Cover the pot.  Put in the oven for 18 minutes (or cook on the stove top at low heat).  Buckwheat is done when all the water is absorbed.  
6. Leave covered to rest for 15 minutes.  Serve with additional butter.  Buckwheat goes extremely well with cooked onions, mushrooms, and duck.

Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days and reheated.