After the Holidays
The “Twelve Days of Christmas” certainly had their appeal in the Middle
Ages with an extended period of celebrations with food and revelry starting on
Christmas Day. When Charles Dickens published his “Christmas Carol” in 1843, he was concerned that this custom was
fading from England and gave it a boost for years to come.
We start modern day celebrations right
after Thanksgiving and by New Year’s day there is an unacknowledged sigh in
most households that life is about to return to ‘normal’. The leftovers are
gone except for the cookies and some unappreciated fruit cake, we groan as we
step on the bathroom scale and we suddenly appreciate a quiet evening at home.
New Years resolutions come in all
manner of variants beside the ones aiming for a more cordial relationship with
your bathroom scale. Some of mine obviously have to do with cooking. It is easy
to get caught up in some of the new trends, so one of my resolutions will be to
look at some old recipes with a view of updates with more varied ingredients to
tweak our taste buds. This should not preclude discoveries of new and
interesting combination of ingredients from around the world.
With all the recent emphasis of grains
in our diet, wild rice seems to have lost it’s prominence as a interesting
natural grain. Wild rice (Zizania)
and cultivated rice (Oryza) actually
represent different genera of the grass family of plants. In North America it is
grown primarily in Canada and Minnesota. It has a delightful nutty flavor and a
firm texture requiring longer cooking time, but pairs well with poultry, pork
and smoked meats.
Wild Rice with Pine
Nuts and Currants
Rinse 1 cup wild rice in several
changes of water and place in a medium pot with 3 cups of chicken broth or water
and 3/4 tsp. salt. Bring to boil, cover and cook on low heat for 1 hour. Some
of the grains will puff open at this point. While the wild rice is cooking, in
a small pan sauté 1 finely chopped shallot and 1 medium finely chopped stalk of
celery for 5 minutes in 2 tblsp. butter. Stir in ¼ cup toasted pine nuts and ¼
cup dried currants. When rice is done, drain off any excess liquid, stir in the
shallot mixture and heat everything on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Serve hot.
The mixture can be made ahead and carefully reheated with stirring.
Wild rice won’t be on the menu in most
Chinese restaurants, but it is a grain that is native also to China. Thinking
ahead to the Chinese New Year (January 25th – year of the Metal
Rat), the wild rice dish would go well with Chinese Spareribs, which seem
lighter than the Western Barbecued ribs.
Chinese
Spareribs with Ginger
Cut a 3 pound rack of pork
spareribs in individual ribs and place in a shallow glass baking dish. In a
bowl mix together:6 tblsp. honey, 6 tblsp. vinegar, 6 tblsp. soy sauce, 1
tblsp. sugar, a dash of Tabasco (optional), 3 minced cloves garlic, 1 inch
piece fresh ginger grated, 1 ½ cups beef stock and ¼ cup sherry. Stir marinade
well and pour over the spareribs. Marinate 8 hours or overnight in the
refrigerator, turning the ribs once or twice. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove ribs from marinade and spread on rimmed baking pan and roast for 1 hour,
turning ribs several times and pouring off the accumulated fat as well as
basting with the marinade each time. The ribs should be crisp, but not dried
out. If you serve this as a main course, use 2 racks of spareribs for 6 people.
Happy New Year!
(I. Winicov
Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and
Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website:
www.winicov-harrington.com)
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