[Newt]

I picked up some hand harvested wild rice while in Minnesota recently and need to know if there are any tricks to cooking/steaming and then dehydrating the stuff. I would prefer to steam it but would need to buy one. Any tips or tricks would be helpful.

[sarbar]

It works well dehydrated for trail food. I will say that for meals it works best added as part of the rice - otherwise it can be too "heavy" tasting. I often use it for 1/4 to 1/3 of the rice blend. Also give it at least 15 minutes to rehydrate (that is if you rehydrate similar to the FBC method where you add a 1:1 ratio of boiling water to dry food, then insulate for said time). PS: Also on dehydrating - line your trays with parchment paper. Keeps it from falling through as you dry, unless you happen to have mesh liners already. With any rice I come back after an hour or two and break apart clumps. Then I check every hour for any smaller clumps. With wild rice don't over dry though. Do check often.

[Newt]

Thanks Sarbar. I'll give that a try.

[dicentra]

Here's my page on wild rice. I'd second Sarbar's suggestion to mix it with other rice blends. Here's a recipe using local mushrooms and wild rice: Northwest Mushroom Rice Pilaf Serves 1 1/3 cup instant rice 2 T instant wild rice 4 T dried mushrooms (I used a mix of white, cremini, chanterelles and oysters) 1/2 t dried onion flakes 1 T dried mixed vegetables 1/2 t vegetable or chicken buillion 1/2 t butter powder 1/2 t dried basil 1/4 t dried thyme salt and pepper to taste At home: combine everything in a zip locking plastic bag. In camp: add enough hot water to cover, stir and let sit until the rice and mushrooms are rehydrated. Stir and enjoy!