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In Russia, kasha refers to any type of porridge and can be made from buckwheat, oats, wheat, rice, barley or millet.  According to RussianCuisine.blogspot.com, the best known of Russian kasha is Guryevskaya (or gurevskaia) kasha, which is made with nuts and fruit.  This recipe is adapted from The Russian Heritage Cookbook by Lynn Visson.   A few of the modifications I made include using cream of rice instead of cream of wheat,  milk instead of light cream and dried fruit instead of candied fruit.

Inspired by Child 44

Prep:  15 minutes     Cook time: 30 minutes      Serves:   8

Ingredients

• 1 cup cream of rice cereal, uncooked
• 6 cups milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups ground blanched almonds or almond meal
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup chopped dried fruit
• 3/4 cup peach or apricot jam
• A handful of chopped almonds for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter a casserole dish.
2. In a medium saucepan, cook cream of rice and milk over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Do not allow to boil.  Add egg yolks, sugar, almond meal, raisins and almond extract.  Continue cooking until very thickened.
3. Place a layer of cream of rice mixture in the casserole dish.  Cover with a thin layer of jam and 1/3 of the dried fruit.  Repeat the layers of Put in another layer of cream of rice mixture, jam and dried fruit 2 more times, finishing with fruit on top.  Sprinkle on chopped almonds.
4. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F.  Serve warm.

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