TGrim
02-19-2015, 03:46 PM
So, maple syrup production is only one of my goals for this year. The second goal is to harvest as much wild rice as I can, which got me thinking about a possible recipe. Beware, my train of thought has lots of backstories and tangents.
I once lived overseas, and as a care package I received a box with loose popcorn and wild rice among the contents. Both bags had spilled all over the box. Not one to waste things, I saved what I could. When I was popping corn one day I noticed that there were rice grains in with the corn, and they puffed almost like rice cereal, and tasted good too! One of my former professors at college wrote a book on tapping maple trees, and she also wrote a book on harvesting wild rice. In her wild rice book was talk of popping wild rice, so I had known about this but hadn't put two and two together. She also talked about it being served as a treat among Native Americans cooked (I presume boiled, not popped) and topped with maple syrup. So obviously the flavors aren't unpleasant together.
Now, I would love to make a maple wild rice cereal for in the mornings by popping wild rice and having it flavored with maple. I could obviously just sprinkle some maple sugar on the whole thing, or pour on the syrup, but I want to try something else.
I came up with some experiments I want to try.
1. Soak the rice in diluted syrup before popping.
2. Coat puffed rice in a light maple glaze or candy coating. Just enough for a tiny taste.
3. Spray the puffed rice with diluted syrup and then dry.
What do you think? Has anyone here done anything that could be compared to this? Any recipes that might give me a start?
I once lived overseas, and as a care package I received a box with loose popcorn and wild rice among the contents. Both bags had spilled all over the box. Not one to waste things, I saved what I could. When I was popping corn one day I noticed that there were rice grains in with the corn, and they puffed almost like rice cereal, and tasted good too! One of my former professors at college wrote a book on tapping maple trees, and she also wrote a book on harvesting wild rice. In her wild rice book was talk of popping wild rice, so I had known about this but hadn't put two and two together. She also talked about it being served as a treat among Native Americans cooked (I presume boiled, not popped) and topped with maple syrup. So obviously the flavors aren't unpleasant together.
Now, I would love to make a maple wild rice cereal for in the mornings by popping wild rice and having it flavored with maple. I could obviously just sprinkle some maple sugar on the whole thing, or pour on the syrup, but I want to try something else.
I came up with some experiments I want to try.
1. Soak the rice in diluted syrup before popping.
2. Coat puffed rice in a light maple glaze or candy coating. Just enough for a tiny taste.
3. Spray the puffed rice with diluted syrup and then dry.
What do you think? Has anyone here done anything that could be compared to this? Any recipes that might give me a start?