"Wild" Wild Rice

[Dawgluver]

Found some in my pasta cabinet, it must be over 10 years old. I cooked it up anyway to add to a CP chicken dish, and I was skeptical as to whether or not it would turn out.

Oh my. I've been eating it like popcorn. It has that wonderful "chew" I remember from my childhood, and from life on the Canada border.

There is really no substitute for wild gathered wild rice. The cultivated stuff is so not in the same league.

 

[Kayelle]

It seems to me that my grandmother sent us some from Minnesota when I was a child, and I've never again tasted wild rice that tasted anything like it.

 

[CWS4322]

You can order Nett Lake Wild Rice online: Wild Rice - Bois Forte Band of Chippewa

When in MN, I stock up on natural wild rice (sometimes I'll even share it and give it to friends). I buy Grade A...when I was growing up, we used to buy 25 lb gunny sacks of wild rice from the tribe. The paddy farmed (cultivated) wild rice is not the same re: texture or taste. I'd rather not eat wild rice than eat that and call it wild rice.

 

[Dawgluver]

This was Lakeland Wild Rice, out of Winnepeg. I remember picking it up at the border. DH loved it so much, he went to order it online, and the only way to get it was to pick it up at the border store, or to call some lady at their local fabric shop.

CWS, I totally agree. Give me wild wild rice, or no wild rice! I was just shocked and awed as to how long the stuff lasts!

Thanks so much for the link, now I don't have to call the fabric store!

 

[Kayelle]

Dawg, I just read that it will last forever. CWS.........I just ordered some from that site. I can't wait to get it.

 

[sparrowgrass]

I like real wild rice, but I also like the paddy grown stuff. To me, they are like 2 different grains. I use the real stuff in salads or pilafs, and the tame stuff in soups and casseroles. I particularly like broken wild rice in wild rice soup with mushrooms.

 

[CWS4322]

Okay--I've eaten natural wild rice many ways (I have also harvested it--not that I had a license, but a friend did). OMG, popped wild rice is amazing! What you do is heat oil in a skillet, put the rice in (not washed) and when it turns white, pull it out of the skillet. OMG...it is soooooo good.

 

[CWS4322]

I like real wild rice, but I also like the paddy grown stuff. To me, they are like 2 different grains. I use the real stuff in salads or pilafs, and the tame stuff in soups and casseroles. I particularly like broken wild rice in wild rice soup with mushrooms.

Wild rice is not a grain--it is a grass.

 

[CWS4322]

My dad brought wild rice to his aunt in CA when he was stationed there--she fed it to the birds! Happy birds!

 

[CWS4322]

This was Lakeland Wild Rice, out of Winnepeg. I remember picking it up at the border. DH loved it so much, he went to order it online, and the only way to get it was to pick it up at the border store, or to call some lady at their local fabric shop.

CWS, I totally agree. Give me wild wild rice, or no wild rice! I was just shocked and awed as to how long the stuff lasts!

Thanks so much for the link, now I don't have to call the fabric store!

Yes--it lasts a long time. I'm still working on the last 25 lb bag my dad bought when I go there.

 

[CWS4322]

Dawglover--how do you keep natural wild rice for 10 years? I go through 10 lb every 4-6 months--but that's because I know I'm going to MN and can restock! For backup, I have that "cultivated" stuff" (I give that as hostess gifts to those who don't know better--my bad).Only my brother and "real" friends get the natural wild rice.

 

[CWS4322]

The Grade A pops, so you don't have to buy the more expensive stuff to make popped wild rice.

 

[CWS4322]

Dawg, I just read that it will last forever. CWS.........I just ordered some from that site. I can't wait to get it.

The price is what I pay in MN when I don't go to the reservation and buy it direct.

 

[CWS4322]

I give FRESH eggs to friends. I stopped by to give a friend a dozen eggs yesterday--she asked me if I had any wild rice I'd be willing to part with...for that, she'd pay me. Guess what she is getting for Christmas (no, not a chicken, not eggs, guess again!).

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I give FRESH eggs to friends. I stopped by to give a friend a dozen eggs yesterday--she asked me if I had any wild rice I'd be willing to part with...for that, she'd pay me. Guess what she is getting for Christmas (no, not a chicken, not eggs, guess again!).

She's getting chicken hats!!!!

 

[Dawgluver]

She's getting chicken hats!!!!

Awww, how tweet! Or are you saying she's cheep?

CWS, it got lost and reshuffled in the cupboard. Will definitely get more, and it will be consumed well before a decade is up!

 

[sparrowgrass]

CWS--I have often heard people say that wild rice is not a grain, it is a grass. Botanically, a grain is the fruit of a grass plant. Wild rice IS a grass, but corn and wheat and barley and oats are all members of the grass family too.

 

[pacanis]

Either this thread got seriously moderated or CWS wins the award for the most consecutive posts in a row in one thread

I always thought wild rice was a grain. At least the stuff in a restaurant that you order as wild rice.

 

[Claire]

We live in wild rice territory, and I'm thinking it's been awhile since I made some. Game hens & wild rice. Yum. On my list soon!

 

[GLC]

True grasses, Poaceae, are flowering plants, the flowers in this case being spiklets typical of grains. It's so commonly mentioned that wild rice is not "rice" that we tend to imagine they're not close relatives. But they're both grasses and both members of the Oryzeae tribe of grass but are separate genera. They're closer to each other than either of them is to wheat, barley, oats, or millet.