Posted on: Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Off the Shelf
Solo or blended with other grains, wild rice is a treat
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
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| Cooking wild rice requires both more time and more water than other rices, and its nutty flavor benefits from being sauteed in butter. Once scarce and very expensive, it has become more available and affordable since becoming a cultivated crop.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser |
We've all heard it: Wild rice isn't rice at all. It's a marsh grass, sometimes also called Indian rice, because the wild forms are harvested by Native Americans in the Great Lakes area. The men pole through the marshes; the women, sitting in the stern, use two sticks for harvesting — one to sweep a few reeds into the canoe, the other to whack the reed heads sharply, knocking the grains out. Not-so-wild wild rice is cultivated in California, Oregon and elsewhere. Wild rice can be boiled, baked or microwaved. It must be well-cleaned first; fill a bowl of wild rice with fresh water, stir, set aside for a few minutes, then pour off floating husks and debris. For stovetop preparation, boil one part wild-harvested wild rice with four parts water; cultivated wild rice with one part rice to three parts water. Do not cover, and do not cook until all water is absorbed. Watch the rice carefully; it will take 30 to 40 minutes to cook. The grains should swell and soften; the rice is properly cooked when the grains are just beginning to split but not opened all the way. Wild rice is delicious sauteed in butter with bell pepper and onion; this pilaf can be used as a stuffing for roast duck.
