Buying Wild Rice

[Psiguyy]

Discovered something the other day. Health food stores have wild rice in bulk! Much cheaper than buying them in the little packages at the supermarket.

Figured this info might be helpful, especially since we're all planning special meals for the holiday season.

BTW, they also have other kinds of rices and grains. You can buy as much or as little as you need.

[kitchenelf]

Thanks!!

[Konditor]

Wild rice is not rice at all – it is a grass that grows in shallow waters and, until recently, was harvested only by native Americans. It is usually costly to buy, but can be “stretched� by being mixed with white or brown rice. The best grains are whole, long, and unbroken. The special nutty flavor of wild rice combines very well with roast game, duck, or goose. Here’s a basic method for cooking:

Wash 2 cups wild rice in cold water and place in a large saucepan. Pour on 4 cups boiling water; cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Bring the kettle to the boil; drain the rice and pour on another 4 cups boiling water. Do this four times in all so that the rice cooks for a total of 80 minutes. Add salt with the last of the boiling water; let sit, then add butter & freshly ground pepper.

[buckytom]

toss in 2 cloves, and a coupla bay leaves and some chopped garlic into the water before you add the rice, yummm, savory wild rice...

i read that native americans used to collect the grains by either laying a blanket down under a bunch of grasses, or a canoe, and bending the grasses over it, then beating the grass to collect the seeds. i tried it once. it's really hard to get very much.

the canoe idea works really well with wild berries like blueberries, but you end up with blue feet and a blue canoe...

[Konditor]

the canoe idea works really well with wild berries like blueberries, but you end up with blue feet and a blue canoe...

Well, I’ve for three decades about the real significance of those Bernie Taupin lines for Elton John’s Where to Now, St. Peter: “I took myself a blue canoe/And I floated like a leaf.� Obviously, it was a reminiscence about a blueberry-picking-picnic portage!

It was interesting to read your description of the traditional method used by the tribesmen to gather wild rice. I wonder, how did they use the grain for food? Was the majority of it sold?

[Psiguyy]

I understand tribes still use the traditional methods to collect wild rice. It has a lot to do with conservation. Leaving some of the rice on the plant ensures that there will be plants for the next year.

They really do use canoes. They bend the plant over the canoe and give it a couple of whacks with a stick. Whatever falls off is what they take. The rest goes back to the land/water. If I'm not mistaken, the method of collection is regulated.

[Claire]

I was surprised to discover when I moved to "wild rice" territory (not here, but not too far north of here), you can buy it in three grades as well. Entire, whole rice, some that is a little broken up, and some that is quite broken up. The middle category fits most needs I have, and the lowest category is fine for casseroles and such.

[htc]

When you use wild rice to make soup, say chicken and wild rice soup, what should the texture of the rice be like? I

find that if I follow cooking instructions on wild rice, I don't like it much because it's still a bit hard for me, I tend to cook it until it busts open and is softer.

[buckytom]

yup, that's what i do htc. i don't like it too hard either, so i cook it longer like you said.
never made it in soup tho. sounds good, like it might add more depth of flavor to the soup.
btw, thanks for ressurecting a good thread. we were just chatting about survival stuff yesterday on another thread.

Originally Posted by Konditor

It was interesting to read your description of the traditional method used by the tribesmen to gather wild rice. I wonder, how did they use the grain for food? Was the majority of it sold?

konditor, i've only read about what native americans did years ago, before the white man invaded. the grains were used for their own tribe, or might have been used for barter with other tribes.
i've tried it, but some of the success depends on knowing exactly when to harvest so the grains seperate from the stalks and chaff. i ground what little i collected, then added it to a roasted acorn, wild garlic/onion and dandelion soup. it was bitter, and very gassy, but edible. reminds me of lewis and clark's expedition when they got to the mandan villages. after eating gunpowder flavored horsemeat (gunpowder = salt peter = salty) for so long, the men shared the food of the mandans, which was mostly roots, berries, and salmon. the men got such bad gas they went back to eating their horses.