Wild Rice Soup....conjours up images of little grains of white rice doing the Mambo...no? Wild rice, as you probably know, is not a rice at all, it's a grass - grown in marshy places which makes it hard to get and that's why it's expensive - there, that's my home economic lesson for today, a class that I failed by the way. When I wrote about Cider Bugs, a few posts back, I told you about the wonderful women I was priviliged to associate with in MinneSNOWta....not only were they great crafters, they were wonderful cooks and the cookbook we did, called Another Touch of Love, is filled with some of the best recipes I have - evidenced by the pages that are covered with spots, if not stuck together entirely.
This is truly comfort food.....and it's better the next day because it's thicker and just more comforting, if that's even possible. I served it to my book club the other day - they were comforted to say the least.
The recipe starts off with the 'holy trinity of cooking'....carrots, celery and onions...amen. There are many variations of this soup - there are four different recipes in my same book - so this recipe is a combination of those four - this is another one of those recipes that falls into the "you can't screw it up" category.
Wild Rice Soup - Adapted from Another Touch of Love, a Cookbook For The Benefit of St. Paul Children's Hospital Association.
1 1/2 cups wild rice
1 1/2 cups combined white and brown rice (you can use all one type)
1 large onion, diced
3 large carrots, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups ham, diced
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 cup flour
8 cups chicken broth, divided
3/4 to 1 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoonful curry powder, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Saute onion, carrot and celery in butter until all are soft. Stir in flour, a little bit at a time. When it's incorporated, slowly add 7 cups of chicken broth, stirring well. Add garlic, mushrooms, ham, curry, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. Stir in rice and wild rice, simmer with lid on for 30 to 40 minutes, or until rice and wild rice is cooked, check frequently to see if more chicken stock is needed, if so, add in the 8th cup of stock. When rice is cooked, stir in half and half. You can continue to keep soup warm but do not boil after this point.
Serve hot, reheat in microwave, serves 8.