Since you’ve been doing this a long time and you are not a professional, please record a video and put it up on YouTube, it would help out a lot of people.
You can watch Bittman making kasha varniskes here. He's not a stickler for timing which is the correct approach. He says, 20 minutes in a dry cast iron pot with a lid just to get them soft enough. Then lid off, add a bunch of fat and go until they look right.
