Brown and wild rice with mushrooms

Hello foodies,

I have been looking for wild rice since late May, when I came back from my annual girls' getaway with S.  The last couple of years, we have done a weekend that involves a cooking class.  This year, we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and did an afternoon/evening class at Strewn winery.  One of the dishes that stood out to both S and me was the brown and wild rice with mushrooms.  I returned to Ottawa, all enthusiastic about making it, and have since been stymied by the apparent scarcity of wild rice on its own.  That stuff is hard to find.  Grocery stores carry it as part of a pre-made mix, but those of us wanting to mix it ourselves seem to be out of luck.  Unless, as I have discovered, you go to a health food store.

So, since I had to go by a health food store on my way to the Pelican last night, I scored some (expensive) wild rice, and today I made brown and wild rice with mushrooms, pan-roasted chicken breast with thyme, and a Greek salad for my dinner guests, S and D.

Since I seem to have lost the recipes I brought back from my cooking weekend, I had to make it up as I went along.  This is easily vegetarian, or even vegan, if you use veggie stock instead of chicken.

Recipe:

1 1/4 c brown rice
3/4 c wild rice
3 c chicken or veggie stock.
5 garlic cloves
5 green onions
1 1/2 c cremini mushrooms, sliced
Several springs of thyme, woody stems removed
1 c reconstituted dried mushrooms of choice (today I used a shiitake, portobello and oyster blend)
splash of white wine
salt and pepper to taste

Put dried mushrooms in 1-1/2 c of hot water to reconstitute.  Reserve liquid.

Mix together brown and wild rice, rinse, and drain.

Heat a saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  Mince 2 cloves of garlic and chop 2 green onions.  Soften in saucepan.  Add rice and stir, letting rice get slightly toasty.  Add stock and reserved mushroom water.  Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low.  after about 30-40 minutes, start checking rice to see if it is done.  Add more liquid if needed.

In a skillet, heat oil.  Mince remaining garlic; chop remaining green onions.  Soften garlic and onions in pan.  Add mushrooms and mix together.  Add salt and pepper.  Let mushrooms cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is released and cooked off.  Chop and add add thyme, and a splash of white wine (maybe 1/4 c) and stir.  Let wine cook off.  When rice is done, stir mushrooms into rice.  Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.  Can add fresh chopped parsley to garnish, if desired.

Serves 6, generously.

Goes well with chicken dishes.  Probably less so if you're a vegetarian.

I also made one of my favourite summer desserts, which I call a berry cloud (thanks to A for the original recipe).