Lower East Side Supper

It's all Mark Bittman's fault. I was trying to download his video about kasha and varnishkes from the New York Times site, but it got hung up at the same spot three times. I decided to venture forth anyway, and while I was at it, do a bit of a variation on the kosher dish he was trying to recreate from his childhood.
There is a vegetable market in Vancouver, Wash., owned by Russians. They cater to their countrymen and other bargain hunters. Among the items I snagged there was a bag of buckwheat groats --- kasha. I thought I might try to grind the kasha into flour for buckwheat sourdough pancakes.
The package has languished on the shelf at least six months. The Bittman bit got me reminiscing about the Lower East Side and the ethnic restaurants I used to patronize when I lived in New York City. The cuisine of Alphabet City cafes then tended toward comfort food from the Ukraine and Eastern European Ashkenazis, also Russians who hadn't yet made it to Brooklyn. Kasha and varnishkes was the side dish that occasionally was offered, and it was tasty.
According to Bittman before his image fragmented into nothingness, onions are semi-caramelized in a heavy Dutch oven. Also, kasha is toasted after being anointed with beaten egg (I used Eggbeaters). I managed to accomplish the task in a heavy cast iron skillet, using about two cups of buckwheat groats. He used schmaltz; I used 2 tsp. of canola.
On the back burner simmered about a quart of broth including gleanings from a batch of chicken soup fortified with canned broth, plus some dried and canned shiitake and mixed mushrooms and cooked celery and carrot pieces from the soup.
I know it's not especially kosher, but I added a half cup of white wine to the mushroom/stock mixture. I also minced two cloves of garlic into the giant sweet onion that was softening with the splash of white wine. As the onions became soft, I threw in the kasha, plus about a cup and a half of uncooked multi-colored bowtie pasta. Then I poured the broth and vegetable mixture into the contents of the dutch oven. I covered it and baked it in the oven at 350 about 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, not wanting to waste oven heat and feeling the need for additional protein, I opened a can of Alaska salmon. After draining the liquid (I used to give it to the cat but now she turns up her nose), I removed the bones and skin, crushed four multi-grain crackers into the loaf pan, adding a few panko crumbs and the two-egg equivalent of Eggbeaters, plus onion powder, garlic, a tsp. of dillweed, about a half tsp. of parsley, some chives and a little Spanish smoked paprika. The loaf pan joined the kasha casserole in the oven; they came out about the same time.
Mom pronounced the meal "unusual but good." Not bad for a Monday night supper.