A while back I purchase a one pound bag of wild rice from Minnesota thinking that someday I would prepare in a cream of chicken soup type mixture like I had at Cranberrys I believe in Ely a long time ago... Well it sat in the pantry for almost a year until I thought I would try it in something a little different so I cooked it in a water chicken both mixture, joined it with some sauteed portabella mushrooms, and then stuff it inside a whole porkloin about 18 inches long and 5 inches thick... I cut a little out of the middle of the loin to allow for more packing of the rice mixture... cooked it on the grill until it was goldern brown and a little charred in some places and then wrapped it in foil to finish cooking over low heat on the grill... while I love porkloin and it is one of my specialties... that Wild Minnesotan Rice was fantastic... I can't wait to take some of it and some portabellas to the BWCA next year to have along with some golden brown walleye fillets... doesn't it make your mouth water???

How do you prepare your wild rice??

Bruce

I know this is bringing up an old post but as wild rice is one of my passions, I thought I might reply...

I harvest my own wild rice (in season). A lot of work but still very pleasurable. We have many ricing lakes in our area here in NW Wisconsin. Last year in one afternoon I and a partner harvested over 35 lbs of raw rice. After paying to have it processed, we each had about 8 lbs of cookable rice. And this rice is beeauutifffuull!!
The grains are almost an inch long. Much better quality than the commercially grown stuff.

I have had the best luck pre-cooking the wild rice in the microwave. One cup takes about 15-18 min. at high power. I then either mix this in with regular rice on the stovetop or else pack in airtight freezer bags, freeze it and take them along when I camp. A favorite recipe of mine is a slow cooker one.

1 cleaned whole ruffed grouse (pat)
(2 cornish hens would work here) place in a slowcooker with:
1 can bean/bacon soup
1 can mushroom soup
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 stalk chopped celery
1 cup precooked wild rice
season to taste
(optionally, add dried cranberries or raisins)
add enough water to bring fluids up 2/3 of the way up the bird

put cooker on high for 40 minutes then reduce to low and cook for additional 2-1/2 hours.

add regular rice (stir) and enough water to cover and cook another 30 -40 minutes. Test rice for doneness. I'll guarantee you'll think you died and went to heaven when you taste this.

Andy

Put down all that canned business-canned soup,cream of ?? etc...I love the idea of harvesting your own supply of rice. The flavor of the rice is great, and doesn't need a lot "canned" flavors to make it taste good. Try folding some cooked wild rice into pancakes, breads,omletts, or make a really great salad with cooked wild rice, chopped fresh spinach, sliced scallions, toasted almonds and a light vinaigrette made of tamari,toasted seseme oil, cider vinagar, sugar, and maybe some freshly grated ginger. The rice has such a great nutty flavor, you can really toss it into any dish with great results. You can even go as far as to make wild rice burgers for your grill. Just mix some wild rice with ground pork and season it to taste with fresh sage, scallions, tamari, or whatever you like. The possibilities really are endless.