Wild Rice, Mushroom and Duck Chowder
Dried morels, parched wild rice, and instant potato standing in for a foraged tuber.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 650 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Car camping
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Cooked parched wild rice, dehydrated | 1/2 cup | cook and dry at home; raw wild rice takes 45 minutes and too much fuel |
|---|---|---|
| Dried morels | 1/3 oz | small ones, broken up |
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1/3 cup | stands in for the wapato tubers |
| Freeze-dried mirepoix | 3 tbsp | dried carrot, celery, onion |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Powdered duck or chicken stock base | 2 tsp | |
| Powdered whole milk or cream powder | 3 tbsp | |
| All purpose flour | 1 tbsp | thickener; whisk into the milk powder at home |
| Duck fat or ghee | 1 tbsp | small screw-top tin |
| Shelf-stable duck confit or canned chicken | 2 oz | optional, adds most of the protein |
| Dried chives and a pinch of dried oregano | 1 tsp total | stand-ins for ramp leaf and bee balm |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Pour 650 ml of water into the pot and add the morels, mirepoix, and wild rice. Bring it to a boil.
- Drop to a simmer for ten minutes. The mushrooms and vegetables need that time to come back; the rice is already cooked and just rehydrating.
- Take it off the heat and stir in the dry mix of milk powder, flour, stock base, garlic, and herbs. Stir hard so the flour does not clump.
- Back on low heat for two or three minutes, stirring, until it thickens. Do not walk away, milk powder scorches.
- Off the heat, sift in the potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it is chowder and not broth.
- Stir in the fat and the meat. Season and eat.
The original is a foraged soup built on wapato tubers, duck stock, and cream. None of those travel. Potato flakes do the job the tubers did, since they were acting as starch and body rather than flavor, and milk powder with a spoon of flour rebuilds the cream without a cooler. Parched wild rice keeps its flavor after drying, which is why it is worth cooking at home rather than swapping in something faster.
The morels carry the whole pot. A third of an ounce of dried mushroom weighs nothing and puts more into the broth than the stock base does, so give them the full simmer in plain water before anything dairy goes in. Add the thickener off the heat and the flour disperses instead of seizing into lumps.
Packing
Wild rice, morels, and mirepoix go in one bag. Milk powder, flour, stock base, garlic, and herbs go in a second bag, whisked together at home so the flour is already dispersed. Fat and meat ride on their own.
Variations
- Skip the meat and use a mushroom stock base for a vegetarian version; it is still a real dinner.
- Extra dried mushrooms of any kind stretch the pot and cost nothing in weight.
- At a basecamp with fuel to spare, simmer five minutes longer and the broth gets noticeably deeper.
https://foragerchef.com/duck-soup-with-wapato-morels-and-wild-rice