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Popped Wild Rice
There's nothing more cheerful than a hopper full of popped brown rice, or better still, popped wild rice, on a drizzly day.
Have a pan of fat smoking hot and scatter in about 1 tablespoon of wild rice at a time. As soon as it pops skim it out, drain on paper and pop in some more. It wriggles up to the top like a handful of white maggots, but tastes better.
It's a substantial snack, almost a meal in itself, a nice bit of free lunch with a drink, or a crisp breakfast food. And if you haven't deep fat, try parching the rice to give it a nutty flavor.
A two-ingredient snack — wild rice and hot fat — that depends almost entirely on getting the fat hot enough and the batches small enough.
- Fat temperature"Smoking hot" suggests fat at the top of its usable range; the puffing depends on moisture inside the grain flashing to steam, so fat that is merely hot will toast rather than pop. Use a fat with a high smoke point — lard, beef tallow, peanut or another refined oil — and no more than an inch or two in the pan.
- The hinge: one tablespoon at a timeThe instruction to scatter in a tablespoon and skim it out at once is the whole technique. The grains pop and then scorch very quickly; a larger handful drops the fat temperature and you get a pan of bitter black grains. Have the skimmer in your hand before the rice goes in.
- Use true wild rice, and use it dryWild rice (Zizania) is what is meant here. Hand-harvested lake grain is generally thinner-hulled than cultivated paddy-grown grain, which may give fewer duds, though this is a cook's impression rather than a tested rule. Any rice must be bone dry — damp grain spatters violently in hot fat.
- "Popped brown rice"Ordinary brown rice puffs in the same way but far less dramatically; it swells and blisters rather than opening out. It is worth doing, but do not expect the same volume.
- Parching insteadThe dry-pan alternative at the end is the older method: a heavy skillet over moderate heat, rice stirred constantly for several minutes until it smells nutty and a few grains crack. This gives flavour and crunch but very little puff.
- Seasoning and drainingSalt the grains the moment they come out of the fat, while the surface is still greasy enough to hold it. Drain on paper as directed; they crisp further as they cool.
- Yield and keepingPopped wild rice takes up far more room than the raw grain, so a small measure goes a long way. It stays crisp for a day or two in a closed tin and goes soft in humid air, so pop what you will eat.