Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Tantalizing Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

Sept 19, 2006

“THE FOOD OF THE NORTH”

Growing naturally in the bountiful marshland and shallow lakes of Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, wild rice, the “food of the North,” is a traditional staple food of the Algonquians, Northern Cree and Ojibwa.  Northern Manitoba is Wild Rice country and the plant has been seeded in many shallow lakes and provides an income for northern people.

Wild rice is native also to the United States and grows in fresh water and brackish swamps from New England to Texas to North Dakota.  But its greatest abundance has always been in the state of Minnesota.  In brief it grows in nearly every state of the Rocky Mountains and has some 60 local names with many of them associated with Indian names of the area in which it grows.  For example: Connecticut – “Blackbird Oats”; Louisiana and Wisconsin – “Fool Oats”; Delaware and Pennsylvania – “Indian Oats”; Texas – “Indian Rice”; and in North Carolina – “Wild Rice”.

The wild harvest in fall is a family event for Native Canadian families.  Harvesting techniques have changed very little in a thousand years.  Wild rice is a large reed-like grass, found in shallow lakes and ponds.  It grows well in three or four feet of water and is often eight to ten feet tall, with large broom-like flower clusters on top.  It has a husk which must be removed

Families often returned to the same location every year, and each clan had its own share of the harvest.  Ojibwa women would braid rice stalks together along the borders to mark out the area of harvest for each family.

When the rice grains are hard they are ready to harvest.  Wild rice is gathered from a canoe.  One person poles the canoe through the marsh while an other person, seated on the stern of the canoe, bends down the stalks with one stick and using a second stick, knocks off the rice kernels into the bottom of the canoe.  When the canoe is full of rice they return to shore.

The rice is spread out to dry and then parched to loosen the husks.  To remove the husks the rice is pounded with long wooden sticks.  The rice is then “winnowed,” or tossed in the air so that the light-weight husks blow away and the rice falls into a tray.  The rice can then be stored in bags.

Boil (covered) one part (cup, etc.) of wild rice (after rinsing it) in 4 parts (cups etc.) of water slowly, about 45 minutes. It should absorb all the water, as it is done. Don't salt it. Actually, cooking time varies according to the variety and how it was processed; if it's black it takes longer. Taste a few grains. If you're going to use it in a stuffing, stew, soup, casserole, or salad, don't boil it all mushy. Taste it before you stir in any salt afterwards, some kinds really don't need any. You can use wild rice in any recipes you usually use regular rice for, especially if the recipe calls for the rice cooked separately first. You can serve it plain with butter, and stir or fluff it up when done, because once it's cooked or cooking it doesn't matter if the long grains get broken.

Wild rice is a favourite accompaniment for game or wild fowl.  This recipe for Pine Nut Wild Rice has the delicious flavour of wild rice and can be served with a variety of different meats or fowl.  We particularly enjoy it with wild duck.

Pine Nut Wild Rice

? cup wild rice, uncooked

2 tablespoons green onion/tops, sliced

1 teaspoon margarine or butter

1-1/2 cups chicken broth

2 ounces of pine nuts, toasted

? cup pears, dried and chopped

? cup currants

1. Cook and stir wild rice and onions in margarine in a two-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat until onions are tender, about 3 minutes.
2. Stir in broth.  Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and cover.  Simmer until the wild rice is tender, about 40 to 50 minutes.
3. Stir in pine nuts, pears, and currants.

FAR NORTH WILD RICE CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

• 1? cups uncooked wild rice
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium green pepper, diced
• 3 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
• ? cup celery, diced
• ? lb. bacon, diced (or, your choice of meat)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• ? cup Soya sauce (or chicken broth)
• pepper to taste

Method:

Cook rice according to “Cooking Instructions”. Brown meat, remove from pan, set aside. Drain extra fat. In 2 tbsp oil (or butter), stir fry mushrooms, onions, celery and green peppers to desired tenderness and toss with cooked rice. Add meat, peas, Soya sauce, and pepper then gently stir fry over medium heat until warmed through.
Serves: 6-8

POPPED WILD RICE

I've only been able to make this work with reasonably fresh real Indian rice. I don't think you can pop commercial black rice. If it's too dried out (from being broken, then heated) it can't pop. Test your rice before doing a lot. Put some fat in a frying pan, sprinkle in a little rice and stir it carefully so it doesn't burn. Maybe it will pop. (It won't fly around like popcorn, it slowly puffs itself into a long fat pillow.) If it doesn't (and you didn't burn it) throw it in with the other rice and boil it. If it does, you can eat it like popcorn for more healthful snacks, and for breakfast cereal.

Popped wild rice can be used as an interesting replacement for croutons in a salad, or as a garnish on soups, and casseroles. Not all wild rice will pop successfully. The best wild rice to use is hand processed wild rice that usually has more moisture left in each kernel, which will expand when heated.

Place about ? inch of oil in a small, shallow pan with a small strainer set in the oil. Heat at high temperature until oil is at about 450 F. Drop one rice kernel into the strainer. When it sizzles, cracks open and expands to about double its length, the oil is ready. (You may wish to reduce the heat temporarily.) Add 1 tablespoon of rice at a time to the oil. When all the kernels have expanded (which constitutes the popping), empty the strainer onto paper toweling. Repeat, adjusting heat as necessary. Crisp popped rice may be seasoned with salt, pepper, and mixed herbs to enhance the flavor. This popped rice can be made in large quantities and stored in a sealed container for several weeks.

WILD RICE CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 4 cups boiling water
• ? cup oil
• ? cup Soya sauce
• 1 can mushroom pieces (not drained)
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 package chicken noodle soup

Method:

Mix together in casserole.
Sprinkle a little pepper over top.
Bake at 325 for 2 to 3 hours.
The liquid will disappear and should be like an ordinary rice pudding when baked.
Stir a couple of times while cooking.
* Note: Rice can be soaked overnight - adjust cooking time accordingly

Pancakes: Form cooked wild rice into thick pancakes or thin patties. Fry in butter. Serve with maple syrup. If you don't have any, heating brown sugar, butter and a little water (1 part water to 4 parts brown sugar) makes a better syrup than the kind you buy. Rice cakes are also good with berry syrups or honey, or at a main meal with butter or gravy.

Breakfast cereal: Serve cold or warm cooked rice with sugar or honey and cream. Stir ins: sunflower seeds, chopped apple, peach, pear; chopped dried fruits.

Native Indians pop-rice (in deer tallow or bear fat) was traditional. They usually make it at First Rice. They poured maple syrup over pop-rice (from the tied sheaves) at sugar camp. Also in winter they melted hardened sap-candy over it and made it into balls. For winter travel, pop-rice was crushed and shaped into cakes with some deer fat and quite a lot of melted sugar and dried berries. It was lightweight, filling, nutritious, and could be eaten without a fire if enemies were around. It didn't have to be packed into pieces of clean gut, like pemmican.

If you are a city person, you can buy "tame" rice farmed in paddies. Chances are this will look very dark, which most likely means the rice laid around quite a while, drying, before it was parched (in a commercial oven) and husked (by a machine). It will always be completely broken up. Such rice may take a long time to cook. If you belong to an alternative foods co-op, you may be able to get them to contact an actual tribal or native supplier of wild rice. Most tribes who live in rice areas do have a tribal rice enterprise, and for many large families who go picking rice every year, it's a cash crop, as well as a personal food supply and a pleasant excursion.

Hartson Sager Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net