Roasted Ruffed Grouse with Wild Rice Stuffing

A wild, foraged hen stuffing utilizing grouse giblets, hen of the woods mushrooms, and wild rice

The primary time I cooked wild rice, I wasn’t anticipating it to shock me. I’d eaten “wild rice” earlier than, the sort you discover in industrial boxed blends: stiff, chewy, and extra texture than taste. What I had this time was one thing completely different. The grains had been lengthy and slender, nearly black, with the faintest iridescent sheen. It got here from a small producer in northern Minnesota and was labeled manoomin, hand-harvested by members of the Pink Lake Nation.

I simmered it gently in water till the grains puffed and break up, then tossed it with browned butter and mushrooms. It was earthy, nutty, nearly smoky; nothing like what I remembered from these grocery retailer blends. I used to be rapidly studying that the standard grain of Canada and the northern states was one thing else fully. 

Wild rice isn’t technically rice in any respect, however an aquatic grass; Zizania palustris is essentially the most generally harvested species in america. It’s native to North America, and for 1000’s of years it has performed a central position within the meals techniques and traditions of many Indigenous peoples, notably the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) of the Nice Lakes area. In keeping with Anishinaabe oral historical past, their ancestors migrated west from the Atlantic Coast, guided by a prophecy that instructed them to settle the place “meals grows on the water.” Once they discovered the huge beds of untamed rice waving within the shallow lakes and sluggish rivers of present-day Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario, they knew they’d arrived.

Harvesting wild rice is a labor-intensive act, completed by canoe in late summer season or early fall, when the grains are mature however haven’t but dropped into the water. One individual paddles whereas one other gently knocks ripe grains into the boat utilizing a pair of cedar sticks. It’s a rhythm, a partnership between folks and plant that hasn’t modified a lot in centuries. The canoes might not essentially be constituted of birch bark, and the parching tools could also be trendy, however the household gathering across the harvest most likely seems to be the identical because it all the time has. 

In fact, not all wild rice is created equal. A lot of what’s bought in supermarkets at present comes from large-scale cultivated paddies, largely in California. These “wild rice” operations had been developed within the twentieth century and use managed flooding and trendy harvesting tools, producing a extra uniform product that’s typically darker, denser, and fewer flavorful than true hand-harvested rice. Most individuals’s introduction to “wild rice” has been this non-traditional paddy rice that’s something however wild. 

Strains of paddy rice have triggered alarm in First Nations communities as geese transfer the seeds from lake to lake, inflicting hybridization with native strains. Information keepers in mentioned communities have been working exhausting to maintain their rice patches pure and to maintain them rising sustainably. 

In a time when many are wanting again to conventional meals for that means, well being, and sustainability, wild rice stands tall. It’s a wild meals that has not but been totally tamed; a grain that resists commodification; a seed that also honors its roots. To eat it’s to style historical past, to help Indigenous sovereignty, and to rejoice a uniquely North American heritage.

I discover that it all the time goes finest with different wild elements. On this case, that occurs to be roasted ruffed grouse and foraged hen of the woods mushrooms, all of which will be harvested across the identical time.

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