I Have A Request!!! Native American Indian Cooking

i have a request!!!

lollya 16 years ago

okay, so when i was in college i took a multicultural class and we had some wonderful people from red lake. one day, we were all to bring in foods from our culture. they brought in a dessert, similar to rice krispy bars, but with wild rice, it was amazing. the rice was "popped" somehow...i would love if anyone had an idea about a recipe...

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recipecollector78 16 years ago said:

I believe in stalking the Wild Asparagus Euell Gibons mentioned someting about frying wild rice wich prouces something simulr to pop-corn. I've only read about it, but never tried it. As far as the treats go... I've never heard of them; but I will see if I can find out more.

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dee 16 years ago said:

Lollya.....Some info on Popped Wild Rice
I am intrigued by your quest.

POPPED WILD RICE

Popped wild rice can be used as an interesting replacement for croutons in a salad, or as a garnish on soups, and casseroles. Not all wild rice will pop successfully. The best wild rice to use is hand processed wild rice that usually has more moisture left in each kernel, which will expand when heated.

Place about 1/2 inch of oil in a small, shallow pan with a small strainer set in the oil. Heat at high temperature until oil is at about 450 F. Drop one rice kernel into the strainer. When it sizzles, cracks open and expands to about double its length, the oil is ready. (You may wish to reduce the heat temporarily.) Add 1 tablespoon of rice at a time to the oil. When all the kernels have expanded (which constitutes the popping), empty the strainer onto paper toweling. Repeat, adjusting heat as necessary. Crisp popped rice may be seasoned with salt, pepper, and mixed herbs to enhance the flavor. This popped rice can be made in large quantities and stored in a sealed container for several weeks.

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lollya 16 years ago said:

we have a quest by more than one...
i've even emailed several Native American's on the subject, but only received things similar to what we had. Yay yay yay! RecipeCollector - it WAS like popcorn which gave the krispy treats so much depth. they were WONDERFUL. Oh! We must find it!

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recipecollector78 16 years ago said:

I Was also able to find this information out. Will post a recipe for Poped Rice.

I've only been able to make this work with reasonably fresh real Indian rice. I don't think you can pop commercial black rice. If it's too dried out (from being broken, then heated) it can't pop. Test your rice before doing a lot. Put some fat in a frying pan, sprinkle in a little rice and stir it carefully so it doesn't burn. Maybe it will pop. (It won't fly around like popcorn, it slowly puffs itself into a long fat pillow.) If it doesn't (and you didn't burn it) throw it in with the other rice and boil it. If it does, you can eat it like popcorn for more healthful snacks, and for breakfast cereal.

traditions

Pop-rice (in deer tallow or bear fat) was traditional. They usually make it at First Rice feasts at ricing camp if anyone is there who knows how. Somebody told me the name for it, but I forgot. They poured maple syrup over pop-rice (from the tied sheaves) at sugar camp. Also in winter they melted hardened sap-candy over it and made it into balls. For winter travel, pop-rice was crushed and shaped into cakes with some deer fat and quite a lot of melted sugar and dried berries. It was lightweight, filling, nutritious, and could be eaten without a fire if enemies were around. It didn't have to be packed into pieces of clean gut, like pemmican.

Copyright 1995, Paula Giese

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