It's been a good year for the native wild rice crop. Throughout the northern lakes in Minnesota, heart of Ojibwe country, 60,000 acres of natural wild rice have been harvested the traditional way. Using sleek canoes that glide through the dense thickets, ricers knock the rice from its grassy heads, then thrash, parch and toast it over an open fire of oak and white pine. Its nutty flavor is tinged with wood smoke.
True wild rice that's been harvested for hundreds of years according to these careful, traditional methods costs more. But this rice swells to four times as it cooks and is far more complex.
A mottled gray-black-and-brown, the rice is decidedly different than the black and shiny cultivated paddy rice. Hand-harvested wild rice cooks in about half of the time of the cultivated. Look for labels that indicate "hand-harvested, wood parched" wild rice. It's available in most grocery stores, natural food co-ops and at farmers markets.
So tasty, it's most delicious cooked simply with a sprig or two of thyme and parsley, a little garlic and butter. Rinse it well in a colander under cold running water before you begin.
Beth Dooley is co-author, with Lucia Watson, of "Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland."
