Minnesota Fried Rice!!
Living in Northern Minnesota this time of the year it is easy to hibernate like the animals. After eating our share during the holidays, it only seems right to sleep the rest of the winter! Our meals get simpler, usually roasted veg and some kind of rice or grain. Foods available to us here, this time of the year, are more homey and warming than other times of the year.
I do spend the extra money to have bags of “fresh” spinach, bananas and occasional avocados. Otherwise we stick with our root cellar foods from our local farm and we just get kind of bored by the end of the winter. Lucky for you I am not bored yet and I have a lovely recipe to share.
One of the great foods native to my neck of the woods is Wild Rice. Oh the beautiful wild rice!
Real wild rice (not farm cultivated) cooks very quickly on the stove top. In fact if you soak it overnight you don’t have to cook it! I prefer it cooked, it is a comfort food for me.
Here is some nutritional info for you.
Nutrients
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3 g
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12%
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1 mg
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7%
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52.5 mg
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13%
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0.5 mg
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17%
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134 mg
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11%
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6.5 g
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13%
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Provides all essential amino acids but is slightly low in lysine.
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2.1 mg
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11%
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0.2 mg
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11%
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42.6 mcg
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21%
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2.2 mg
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15%
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Pretty great food to replace your starches with, eh!!
Okay, on to the recipe.
Fried Rice Northern MN Style
1 cup uncooked wild rice
1 delicata squash (or other favorite winter squash)
1 cup dried mushrooms, like shitake (or fresh if you have them)
2 hard boiled eggs
Braggs liquid aminos –or soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil
Olive Oil
First – cut your squash in half and deseed it – toss with olive oil and bake at 350 for 1 hour in a covered casserole dish
While the squash is cooking – Rinse your wild rice over and over (the real stuff is really really dusty) If it is not the real stuff you probably don’t have to worry so much.
Cook the rice in a pot of water with the mushrooms. Cover the rice by about 2 inches or so with water, boil then turn it down. Keep on checking till the rice is the tenderness you like. The wild stuff cooks in about 20 or so minutes. The packaged variety often takes up to an hour.
Drain the excess water and set aside
When the rice and squash are finished, cut the eggs and squash into bite size pieces.
Heat 2 Tbls olive oil, 1 Tbls braggs and ½ tsp toasted sesame oil in the pan then toss in the all other ingredients. Toss till mixed up.
Serve and eat!! Put the braggs and sesame oil on the table to add as individuals like it.
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| ingredients minus the mushrooms |
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| rinse your wild rice like crazy! it can be pretty dusty/dirty (in fact some people who have dust allergies have issues with wild rice) |
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| dried mushrooms work perfectly for this |
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| see the wild rice under the mushrooms – now bring to a boil then turn down till cooked to your taste/texture |
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| here it is done – now drain the remaining water |
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| mmmmm! I love my farm fresh eggs. |
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| here is the squash all cooked up. if you need further instruction on squash prep check out this post on Delicata Squash |
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| cut into bite size pieces |
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| add braggs/soy sauce, olive oil and sesame oil to the pan and heat slightly |
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| dump the rest in and mix till it is all warm and tasty! |
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| ahhhhhhh, perfect winter meal! makes great leftovers too! |
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