I crammed as much rice as I could in the box so I decided to email the recipes!

Here is my favorite way to cook the wild rice for maximum yield and ease.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. You will need a covered casserole or pot (a 2 quart size is good). I use a glass casserole.
Place in casserole:
1 cup raw rice ( rinse thoroughly first)
2.5 cups of BOILING water or stock
Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Test rice for doneness. Cook another 15 minutes if you want it more tender. Drain off excess water or use water in wild rice soup.

The reason that is my favorite way to make it is that it's easy and plain. I grew up eating the rice for breakfast with cream and cinnamon sugar.

You could certainly place some sliced leeks and portbello mushrooms in when you bake it for a more savory dish.
I emailed a couple other recipes and hope to send off more tomorrow.

Teresa

This post was edited by teresa_mn on Sat, Jan 5, 13 at 1:47

Lars, how lucky you are to be a recipient of one of Teresa's gifts of wild rice! Here are a couple of my favorite recipes using wild rice.

Wild Rice Salad
Ina Garten

Ingredients
1 cup long-grain wild rice
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 navel oranges
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
2 tbsp raspberry vinegar
1/2 cup green grapes, cut in half
1/2 cup pecans, toasted
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 scallion, white and green parts chopped
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions
1. In a medium saucepan over high heat combine rice, 4 cups water, and 2 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, until rice is tender, 50 to 60 minutes. Drain and return rice to the pan. Cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

2. While rice is still warm, place it in a mixing bowl. Peel oranges with a sharp knife, removing all the white pith. Cut between the membranes and add the orange sections to the bowl with the rice. Add the olive oil, orange juice, raspberry vinegar, grapes, pecans, cranberries, scallions, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper. Allow to sit for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6.

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

2T butter
1/4c chopped onion
1/2c flour
4c chicken broth
1-1/2c cooked wild rice
1/2 tsp salt
1c diced chicken or ham
1/2c grated carrot
1c half and half
1T dry white wine
1/2c slivered almonds

Melt butter in saucepan, saute onion til tender. Whisk in flour thengradually add broth. Cook, stirring constantly until thickened. Add rice,salt, chicken, and carrots. Blend in cream and wine, heat to serving
temperature. Garnish with slivered almonds.

Linda

I also received a package of wild rice from Teresa! We had to go to New York to the doctor yesterday and I was wiped out when we got home about 6:30 pm. I headed straight to bed so didn't get a post made.

We both love wild rice but it's so expensive here that we rarely eat it and we've never had any but commercial so this is such a treat.

It's going to be part of our first meal cooked as soon as we have a functioning kitchen again. We are sooooo ready for a home cooked meal and Teresa's generous gift will make that meal even more special. Makes me hungry thinking about it!

Teresa, thank you so much for your thoughtful and special gift. I'll post pictures of our meal. We're still hopefull that will be by mid-February. Now that the holidays are over the contractors are back to work and every day sees more progress. They're even working today.

/tricia

Lars, here are a couple of more wild rice recipes.

Both of these recipes are tried and true. The Cornish Game Hen recipe is one that I have had for probably 30 years. Can't remember where it came from or I would give credit to the source:

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Cornish Game Hens with Wild Rice Stuffing
=========================================

Stuffing

1-1/2 cups wild rice cooked
1 small onion finely chopped
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons oil
2 cloves garlic
Pinch tarragon
2 tablespoons finely
Chopped parsley
1-1/2 dozen mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper

Sauce

Pan drippings
3 ounces medium-dry sherry or ruby port
1 tablespoon red currant jam or jelly
2 cups chicken stock

Roux:
2 tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons
Flour Salt and Pepper

Bone the hens by removing rib cage and back of each bird. With pointed knife, cut slit down backbone. Work to free flesh from ribs. Free carcass from wing, leg sockets and neck so you can lift it right out leaving meat behind. With string or unwaxed dental floss sew up the original opening of the bird.

Make Stock using the carcass. In a small saucepan, saute
Onions in a small nut of butter. Add thyme, garlic, parsley and bay leaf. Saute a few minutes and add chicken and hen bones. Continue sauteing. Add about 2 1/2 cups of water or chicken stock salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer about 60 minutes. Strain.

Prepare stuffing by melting butter in a small amount of oil. Saute chopped onion, add garlic, tarragon, salt and pepper, chopped parsley and mushrooms. When flavours are fully blended (about 3 minutes) add wild rice and mix well. Adjust seasoning. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Divide stuffing into 3 equal parts and stuff each bird. Sew up
Using dental floss.

Roast birds in a 375�F until done, about 45 minutes.

Remove birds from pan.

Make a roux with the pan drippings, butter and flour. Add the chicken broth and simmer. Add the sherry or port and the currant jelly. Simmer to meld the flavours.

To serve, Remove the dental floss or string and cut each bird in half.

This one is baked like Theresa's, but it is baked until the rice absorbs all the chicken broth and seasoned with butter and toasted almonds.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Wild Rice Casserole
===================
Source:Gourmet December 1996

1/3 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut
Into pieces and softened
1 cup wild rice (about 6 ounces),
Rinsed well in several changes of
Cold water and
Drained
2-1/4 cups chicken broth, heated
1/4 teaspoon salt
. Preheat oven to 475�F.

In a 10-inch round baking dish toast almonds in oven until golden,
about 5 minutes. Add butter and rice and toss to coat. Stir in broth
and salt and cover dish with foil. Bake rice in lower third of oven 1
hour and 15 minutes, or until rice is tender. If all of broth has not
been absorbed, bake rice, uncovered, 5 minutes more.

Rice may be made 1 day ahead and reheated before serving.

-----------------------------------------------------------

And you can also cook wild rice the same way that I cook all rice. It just takes a little longer. Just bring a large pot of salted water to a boil like you do for pasta, and add the rice. Cook until the wild rice is almost tender, drain and put back into the pot, cover with paper towels and a lid and let the rice steam in it's own heat to finish cooking. Adjust seasoning and add some butter and serve.

Lars, you are in for a REAL treat!
I, too, have been blessed by Teresa's generosity!

My favorite way to prepare it is to bake it,
Pretty much as Teresa described.
Usually I bake it with just a tad of salt,
That way I can go any number of ways with 'left-overs'.
I've also baked it with either chicken or beef broth,
Depending on what I'm serving it with.
It is very versatile and absolutely wonderful.

Linda's (doucanoe) Wild Rice Casserole is delicious,
Sometimes I add a little celery,
very thinly sliced, too.
That is how I made it for our New Year's dinner.
It was a new experience for most of my family.
And all but the 'pickiest' thoroughly enjoyed it.
So thank you to Teresa from my sons,
grandchildren,
And all their spouses, too!

If memory serves me,
Last year Annie1992 posted pictures
Of a bread she made with wild rice,
It looked delicious.
Hopefully she will chime in here
with her recipe for that.
I had intended to try it,
But ran out of rice before I got that far.
Maybe this year. . . .

And I absolutely LOVE it cold, (or hot)
with cream and a little cinnamon & sugar.

You are SO going to enjoy your gift!

Rusty

How special you are Lars, and how generous Teresa is! I remember buying wild rice at the Minneapolis airport (and sour dough bread at San Francisco airport). I used it to make Wild Rice Stuffed Squash, it makes a nice presentation:
6 ounces long grain and wild rice mix
2-1/3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecan halves, toasted
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
4 medium acorn squash (about 22 ounces each)
3/4 cup water

*I left out the cranberries

In a large saucepan, combine the rice with contents of seasoning mix, broth, sage and thyme. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 23-25 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is almost absorbed.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute celery and onion in oil until tender. Stir in *cranberries, pecans and parsley. Remove from the heat. Stir in rice mixture.

Cut squash in half widthwise. Remove and discard seeds and membranes. With a sharp knife, cut a thin slice from the bottom of each half so squash sits flat. Fill squash halves with about 1/2 cup rice mixture. Place in a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Pour water into pan.

Coat one side of a large piece of heavy-duty foil with cooking spray. Cover pan tightly with foil, coated side down. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until squash is tender.

Whatever you make, you can't go wrong with wild rice, yummmy.

When I make a baked wild rice I try to make enough so I have leftovers to make wild rice soup the recipe posted is the one I always use. It cuts down on the cooking time and the flavored are already there. I have had it with chicken in the soup but prefer ham. Patty

Thanks so much for all the recipes - I can't wait to try them all! From my limited experience, cooking wild rice was different from regular rice, and so I wanted to benefit from others' experiences. I already know that I love the flavor, and now it will be easier for me to cook it properly.

I'll post pictures when I make the dishes.

Thanks again Teresa for your generosity and thoughtfulness - it means a lot to me and put a smile on my face.

Lars

A gift is just a gift, but a gift of real wild rice is a spiritual event.

Couple of thoughts:

When you look at a recipe for wild rice, make sure you know if the recipe is for farmed wild rice (farmed? wild?) or real wild rice harvested and prepared the authentic way. Farmed wild rice is very different then real wild rice.

Try cooking a couple of table spoons in a plain and simple way first before you try out various recipes. There is a very distinct flavor and texture of real wild rice. You may decide on a recipe which best suites you after you tasted it.

I have decided not to wash the wild rice or throw away any cooking water. The nutty earthy flavor is too good to be thrown away.

dcarch

(BTW, nothing wrong with farmed wild rice)

Lars, I hope that you enjoy the wild rice as much as we did...

Thank you Teresa for sending me the wild rice, it was a treat! and I prepared it the simple way just like your baked recipe.

Silvia

Teresa is so thoughtful and generous! Yeah for both Lars and Tricia! I want to save these recipes for when we splurge on wild rice. We actually have a little bit of store bought in our pantry we need to use.

I wonder why the two ways of "growing" wild rice makes for different flavors and textures. I understand why that is with animals, since they eat different diets and get different amounts of exercise, but why would it be different for wild rice? Is it also the type of soil and fertilizer used? Is it a different specie of wild rice? I hope this isn't hijacking the thread. If it is, just ignore my question.

Sally

Sally, Farmed wild rice and real wild rice are like turkey and chicken, they are very different.

dcarch

I was hoping Annie would post the wild rice bread recipe Rusty was looking for. Then I remembered that Annie emailed me the recipe. After digging through old emails I found it! At the time Annie posted a beautiful photo and the bread looked great. Here is the recipe along with Annie's comments on the substitutions she made. Later in another post on the forum I believe she said the recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens. Oh - and Rusty - I know it seemed like it was just last year that Annie posted this recipe. Her email is from November 2010.

Annie - please correct me if the source is wrong.

Teresa, it's very good, savory and substantial, I think it would make an awesome grilled cheese sandwich. Here's the recipe I used. I never have wine, so I just used more chicken broth for that, and I never use bouillion or soup base because of the salt and I sure wasn't going to go buy some for a loaf of bread, so I used 1 1/4 cups of homecanned chicken broth. I made it in the bread machine on the dough cycle, added the wild rice when I got the "beep" for the add in, shaped the loaves on my half sheet pan and baked them on the pan.
Wild Rice Bread

4-1/2 to 4-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley, crushed
1 teaspoon snipped fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1 cup cooked wild rice
1 cup water
1/4 cup dry white wine or water
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules
1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir together 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, parsley, thyme, and wild rice in a large mixing bowl; set aside.
Heat and stir water, wine or water, butter or margarine, sugar, bouillon, and salt in a medium saucepan just until warm (120 degrees F to 130 degrees F), butter almost melts, and bouillon dissolves. Add water mixture to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double (45 minutes to 1 hour).
Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Cover and let rise for 10 minutes.
Shape each half of the dough into a 6-inch round loaf, tucking edges underneath. Place loaves 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double (30 to 40 minutes).
Using a sharp knife, cut an X in the top of each loaf. Bake in a 375 degrees F oven about 40 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when you tap the top with your fingers (if necessary, cover loosely with foil during the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning). Remove bread from pans and cool completely on wire racks.
Calories 76, Total Fat 1 g, Saturated Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 3 mg, Sodium 55 mg, Carbohydrate 14 g, Fiber 1 g, Protein 2 g.

Definitely a keeper recipe, this would be really good with soup in the winter too.

Annie

Thank you for posting the bread recipe, Teresa.
I definitely want to try it.
Although I am a bit hesitant to 'dilute down'
The flavor of the wild rice.
It is so-o-o-o good just by itself.

That was 2 years ago?
Wow, how time flies when you're having fun.
Somebody please tell me that 2013
will be better than 2012 was. . . . .

Rusty

Here's a photo of what I made with the wild rice yesterday. Kevin defrosted a couple of chicken breasts from the freezer and cooked them outside in the smoker. It was chilly (low 60s), but not too cold to use the smoker. The chicken came out perfect - I think he has enough experience with it now to get things to come out right. It was very moist and had a light smoky (not overpowering) flavor. Dark meat chicken or fattier foods will absorb more smoke flavor, but I think the breasts come out the best. I didn't want the smoke flavor to compete too much with the rice.

I combined a bunch of recipes to make the rice dish, and it is based mainly on a wild rice, broccoli, and mushroom stuffing recipe. I didn't follow it exactly, but I did add dried cubed bread before I baked it. There was very little bread in it. Anyway, the main flavor was the rice, which I could taste/appreciate mainly through my nose by exhaling while eating it. The rice has complex earthy fragrance to it that is unlike the wild rice I've had before. It goes extremely well with mushrooms, and so I'm glad I added those, and in fact I used mushroom broth from dried mushrooms. Kevin said he was congested and could not appreciate the aroma of the rice the way I did, but he liked it because he said it was not chewy. I guess I did a good job of cooking it because the texture was perfect. One thing I did differently from the recipes was to soak the rice in the water I was going to cook it in for 45 minutes before putting it on the heat. I've found this method works well for brown rice, which is why I used it here.

Thanks for your help with the recipes! I know I will enjoy trying them. We'll probably be having the leftover chicken and wild rice tonight, which will be a time saver for me.

Lars

Oh, you have to make Teresa's wild rice soup!!! I've been extremely fortunate to be gifted her rice as well, and it makes the best soup and a wild rice salad that we also love.

Wild Rice Soup

6 tablespoons margarine or butter
2-3 tablespoons minced onion
1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups cooked wild rice
1/2 cup finely grated carrots (I use more)
1 cup minced ham or leftover cooked chicken
3 tablespoons slivered almonds (you can put them in the soup OR toast and top as a garnish)
Salt to taste if you want
1 cup half and half (see note below)
2 tablespoons dry sherry

In large saucepan, melt margarine; saute onion until tender. Blend in flour; gradually add broth. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil; boil and stir 1 minute.

Stir in rice, carrots, ham, almonds and salt; simmer about 5 minutes. Blend in half and half and sherry; heat to serving temperature. Garnish with snipped parsley or chives.

Sauteed sliced portabella mushrooms are a nice addition to this recipe.
If half n half is too rich or caloric for you feel free to sub in some milk or low fat cream. This recipe is very forgiving and there aren't many substitutions that can ruin it.

Amount: 6 to 7 cups.

Maybe I missed it. Where does one order real wild rice? I would need to get it online.

I too received a package of wild rice from Teresa a year ago. I enjoyed every bite of it. All I made was her wild rice soup because I just couldn't stop eating it (and didn't want to).

Karen

I had the same question as Sally. I didn't understand the difference, either. I thought the "wild" rice I was buying was the real deal. I know it's not now.

I didn't know rice could be made as Teresa described in the oven! Boy, I sure do like that idea! I'll have to find this online, too.

I enjoyed all the recipes and pix. Looking forward to trying this.

All your photos are making me hungry.
I love wild rice, but don't make it often, because the guys only like white rice. So I prepare it for myself, when the mood strikes, and I think it just did.
Wild rice for breakfast. Why not?

Sol