Great Grains: Farmed “Wild” Rice, The Affordable Luxury

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Adding wild rice to holiday grain dishes dresses them right up. Here, Wild Rice Croquettes with a Creamy Mushroom Gravy (recipes after the jump).

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Native Americans in Minnesota (where I grew up) have been harvesting wild rice for thousands of years and do to this day, making it one of the few indigenous foods commonly acclaimed as part of Minnesota cuisine.  There, wild rice turns up in “hot dishes,” pancakes, breakfast porridge, stuffing, and soup most prominently. “Wild” rice is now mostly cultivated, although sometimes you can still find the hand-harvested, truly wild variety, and as it’s considered a delicacy, you will pay two to three times the price of farmed “wild” rice. (Order  truly wild rice on line, here.) I should add that we Californians are now free to consider wild rice a local food because California has come to rival Minnesota in the size of its farmed wild rice crop.

As much as I love the distinctive, earthy flavor of wild rice, I like it better mixed with other rice or grains than I do on its own. In recipes, I typically use four times as much regular rice as I do wild rice. Compared to brown rice, wild rice is higher in protein, and lower in fat and carbs–so it’s well suited to today’s dietary trends. If  you’ve never cooked wild rice, treat it pretty much as you would brown rice–perhaps increase the cooking time a little–and you can’t go wrong. My adaptable recipe for wild rice croquettes is after the jump. Depending on your needs, you could use this recipe as a main dish in a vegan or vegetarian meal, as a side dish, and the basic recipe can even be modified to make stuffing.  How’s that for versatile?

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Native American women harvesting wild rice, print by Mary H. Eastman, 1853.

Produce Superstars: Cranberries, the New Health Food?

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My recipe for cranberry-apple compote contains nary a grain of refined, white sugar--see full recipe after the jump.

Most of us aren’t drawn to cranberries because we hope they’ll make us healthy–we like their gorgeous red color and tart, refreshing taste. Still and all, they have their nutritional charms. Among them, decent quantities of vitamin C, anti-oxidant properties, and many people believe, anti-bacterial qualities as well (they are often cited as being of benefit for treating or preventing urinary tract infections). Cranberries became part of our Thanksgiving celebrations, reportedly, because Native Americans taught early European settlers how to harvest and preserve the wild berries, which ripen at this time of year. Cultivated berries now account for probably 100 per cent of the berries we eat, with Wisconsin being the biggest producer (see an informative slide show at the Wisconsin grower’s website). There’s no getting around the fact that they’re too tart to eat raw, so they must be balanced with some kind of sweetener. In my recipe, I use the more gentle sweeteners, brown rice syrup and maple syrup to tame the tartness very nicely–the myth that you have to pour on the white sugar, is just that, a myth.  I think my recipe will do very nicely indeed on your holiday table, let me know how you like it (full recipe, after the jump).

Cranberries in partially-flooded bog. Cranberries do not grow in water, but the bogs are flooded to facilitate harvesting of the berries which float to the surface after a harvesting machine drives through the bogs. (USDA photo)

Produce Superstars: Brussels Sprouts, The Veggie We’ve Learned to Love

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At this time of year, you may be able to buy brussels sprouts on the stalk, insuring greater freshness.

Some people say you’re not fully adult until you have children, but I wonder if it isn’t a little more simple than that. I think you’re fully an adult once you’ve learned to love brussels sprouts.  Notice I said “love,” merely tolerating them doesn’t cut it. O.K., I’m kidding, but you must admit there’s some truth to it. Not so long ago, I thought I didn’t like the little buggers. Much of what people don’t like about them, I’ve learned, is due to overcooking, when they can smell (and taste) downright unpleasant. So, let’s agree to go light on the cooking, which also improves their nutritional profile.  Members of the same family as broccoli, kale and cabbage, they are high in vitamins A and C, folic acid and antioxidants, including sulforaphane, a chemical thought to have potent anti-cancer properties.  Eat them in good health, and love them for their taste. Roasting, steaming and sautéing are all good cooking methods for brussels sprouts.  Ina Garten’s recipe for roasting them is here, and my recipe for sautéed brussels sprouts with toasted hazelnuts and lemon zest is after the jump.

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Brussels sprouts sauté with olive oil, toasted hazelnuts and lemon zest (recipe after the jump).