Wild Rice Simmered in Seed Milk
Parched wild rice cooked in a thin nut-and-seed milk instead of plain water. Heavier in the gut, lighter in the pack.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 136
- protein
- 15 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 600 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
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Parched wild rice | 1 cup | hand-parched, not black paddy rice; it cooks in half the time |
|---|---|---|
| Hickory nuts or raw sunflower seeds | 3 tbsp | toasted at home, ground coarse |
| Kosher salt | 1 tsp | |
| Hickory nut oil or sunflower oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Maple sugar | 1 tbsp | granulated, not syrup |
| Dried parsley | 1 tsp | |
| Dried apples or cranberries | 1/3 cup | chopped small |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Stir in 2 tbsp of the ground seeds and the salt, and let it steep off the heat for two minutes. That is your thin nut milk.
- Put the pot back on low. Add the wild rice and the dried fruit.
- Simmer, lid on, stirring every few minutes so nothing catches. Parched rice is done in 20 to 25 minutes, when the grains have split open and curled.
- If it goes dry before the rice is soft, add water 50 ml at a time. You want it barely wet at the end, not soupy.
- Kill the heat. Pour in the oil, scatter the last tablespoon of seeds and the parsley over the top, and stir the maple sugar through.
Cooking grain in a weak nut milk instead of plain water is old practice, and the reason is nutritional rather than culinary. The fat and protein suspended in the water get absorbed into the grain as it swells. The rice does not come out tasting of nuts. It comes out sitting heavier, which is what you want at the end of a long day.
Use a thin milk, not a thick one. Grinding the whole seeds into the pot would give you a sticky, gluey rice that scorches on a stove with one heat setting. Two tablespoons of ground seed to 600 ml of water is enough. The original calls for fresh hickory nuts, syrup, and butter; toasted seeds, granulated maple sugar, and oil do the same work and survive a week in a pack. Parched wild rice matters more than any of that: paddy rice needs 45 minutes and far more fuel.
Packing
Rice, salt, maple sugar, parsley, and dried fruit in one bag. Ground seeds in a second bag, split so you can hold a spoonful back for the top. Oil in a leakproof dropper bottle inside a ziplock.
Variations
- Swap in pumpkin seeds or pecans if that is what you have. Any fatty seed makes a workable milk.
- A packet of chicken or a handful of dried mushrooms turns it into a heavier dinner.
- Cold nights: skip the fruit and the sugar, double the oil.
https://foragerchef.com/wild-rice-cooked-in-hickory-nut-milk