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Posts tagged ‘Minnesota’

Nov 19

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What you need to know about wild rice (and an easy pilaf to get you started)

Wild_rice_pilaf_2

I’ve been feeling a little remiss in my duties as a Minnesotan lately, considering how little I’ve talked about wild rice over the years I’ve had this site. We don’t eat it as often as we should, and that’s probably where the guilt actually lies, but I’m determined to remedy the situation and so here I am.

I know I’ve mentioned wild rice here and again, but let’s back up and get a good handle on the whole business. Wild rice (which is not actually a rice, but we’ll get to that) looks like very long long-grain rice covered by a thin brownish-blackish skin. When properly cooked, that skin breaks open and most of the grains begin to curl in on themselves, which many recipes refer to as “blossoming.” The grains still have their bran intact, which gives it a toothsome, chewy texture similar to brown rice and other whole grains. It has a toasty, nutty, earthy flavor, and can often smell and taste slightly like black tea. The flavor and texture it adds over other rices and grains is worth the extra effort required in cooking it, and it’s interesting to add to soups, breads, salads, and other dishes in a way that other grains seem to act more as mere filler or heft.

WildRice_Kale

That said, I’m from Minnesota. I get it. I’ve eaten wild rice my whole life, and in a million different ways. I’ve always known the difference between real wild rice and the other stuff, just like someone from the Northwest knows about wild salmon and someone from New Mexico knows about real green chile. Wild rice isn’t nearly as pervasive of a thing as those other two, so don’t feel bad if you have no idea where I’m going with this – just know that there’s a difference. Read more

Sep 21

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A night at The Bachelor Farmer

I may have grown up with a vaguely Scandinavian heritage in an overwhelmingly Scandinavian region of the United States, but my experience with the foods of that area of the world is limited at best. Sure, pickled herring was on the buffet table of every family holiday as far back as I can remember and I’m a sucker for fresh lefse rolled with butter and sugar – oh, and I suppose I’ve had the meatballs at the Ikea restaurant time and again – but that’s mainly the extent of it. So Brett and I decided to wrap up our few glorious weeks in the Twin Cities with dinner and drinks at The Bachelor Farmer, one of the city’s most talked-about new restaurants. According to its website it “draws inspiration from contemporary Nordic cuisine,” and with that I would heartily agree.

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Sep 9

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A day at the Great Minnesota Get-Together

I want to write something about the food at the Minnesota State Fair. I can’t not write something about the food at the Fair. I grew up going to the Fair every year, this Fair famous for its food on a stick and for its long-standing focus on traditional food-related fair activities, like agriculture and livestock and food preservation and baking contests. But I hadn’t been in over a decade, and my interest in the food is so much more intense than it was before. And it was Brett’s first time, which meant we needed to eat our way through good coverage of the Fair basics – the Pronto Pups and the cheese curds and the Sweet Martha’s cookies and some stuff on sticks – as well as the new and the more sophisticated options.

booths

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