Wild Rice

Up here in wild rice and maple syrup nation, I have been experimenting and have come up with some delicious recipes using wild rice or maple syrup (or both!) in them. Here are three of the meals I have come up with:

1. Wild Fried Rice (about one serving)

Ingredients:
wild rice: 2/3-1 cup cooked
broccoli: 4 or 5 stalks
carrot: 1 medium sized or small
onion: 1/4 of medium sized yellow onion
egg: 1
turkey, tofu or other meat or meat substitute (optional)
maple syrup
soy sauce
black pepper
Sriacha or other chili sauce
garlic
peanut oil or other cooking oil
sesame oil (optional): teaspoon

I have been accused in the past of not measuring my ingredients. I like to go with the flow, add as much as I think I want, and do taste tests. Anyway, the above is subject to your own interpretation--feel free to add or subtract at will!

Directions: Cook the rice ahead of time. It takes about 40 min. to cook a cup of dry rice in 2 cups of water to make about 3 servings of rice. I like to cook a lot and then have some on hand to make other tasty meals with wild rice (seen below).

In a medium-sized pan use some kind of cooking oil: peanut or canola is good. Add the onions and carrots and cook until they are half-done looking to you (a bit softer and a little brown). While they are cooking chop the broccoli into bite-sized pieces, and get other ingredients ready. Add some soy sauce and other seasoning from above to taste--put in a little less maple syrup than soy sauce. I like it kind of sweet, more savory, with a little spice from the chili sauce. Add the broccoli and meat or substitute if it's tofu and doesn't need to be cooked. I had leftover turkey at the time I made it and that was really good, but it's good without meat too.

Add a little water and cover to steam the broccoli. Uncover when somewhat steamed, and add the rice. At this point I add in the rest of the seasonings, and add to my taste. Then add the egg, either stirred up before or into the rice and everything. Cover and cook for a few more minutes.

And it's done! I like to make a broccoli, avocado and dried fruit (and whatever other vege is around like mushrooms or cukes) salad with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder dressing to go with it.

2. Lumberjack Breakfast

I think that's the name. Anyway, this was not invented by me, just got tweaked a bit. Basically it's wild rice, maple syrup, and almond milk. Sometimes I add raisins too. Regular milk would probably be good too. It's nice to eat the next day if you have leftover rice after other wild rice meals!

3. 'Ato-rific Wild Rice

That's my lame title for this dish after the two main ingredients: potatoes and tomatoes. I'll leave it up to you to decide how much of each you use.

Ingredients:
red potatoes
tomatoes
onions
wild rice
tomato basil chicken sausage
salt
pepper
garlic (cloves are better but powder is fine)
rosemary
olive oil

Directions: slice the potatoes thinly, and cut up some onions. Add them at the same time or the potatoes a little before, over olive oil. Season. Add the sausage a little after. Once they are halfway done or so, add the tomatoes and wild rice. Cover and turn down the heat. Cook until the tomatoes look kind of like sundried tomatoes with the skins starting to peel off. Oh, and I guess it's optional to put the rice in--you can also put the mess on top of the rice, or next to it. Go nuts.

Oh, and one more note: please try to use only wild rice. Not that cultivated crap they harvest with the combine. It's also called "paddy rice" because it's really not wild anymore. Anyway, happy cooking!