Wild rice (also known as Canada rice, North American water rice, Indian rice or black rice) is the grain of an annual marsh plant (Zizania aquatica) from the Poaceae family of grasses, with stalks of up to 1.8 m in height. It grows on marshlands and along lakeshores in relatively cold parts of Canada (Saskatchewan) and the northern United States (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan), as well as in the Mississippi Delta. Genuine Canadian wild rice, which Native Americans call “Manomin”, is harvested by hand in September. Long poles are used to bend the stalks over a canoe, and these are then gently threshed to release the kernels. Some of the grains inevitably fall into the water in the process, ensuring that the plants are reseeded for the following year. Harvesting wild rice is a labour-intensive and time-consuming process, which makes it a relatively expensive product: in Germany, genuine Canadian wild rice costs between 17 and 20 euros a kilo.

The varieties of ‘wild’ rice that are widely available nowadays (usually labelled “paddy grown”) are in fact specially cultivated hybrid species. These are conventionally grown and machine harvested – in California, for example – and are of course less expensive as a result. In terms of taste, however, they are no more than a bland alternative to real wild rice. Such hybrid species are very often to be found in rice mixtures.

Freshly harvested wild rice is greenish brown and doesn’t keep for very long. It acquires its characteristic blackish brown colour and nutty flavour during the subsequent processes of drying and roasting, whereby it loses three-quarters of its water content. The hulls are then removed from the roasted grains, which – due to their low fat and water content (1 per cent and 7–10 per cent respectively) – keep almost indefinitely.

From a nutritional point of view, wild rice is far superior to white rice as it contains up to 14 per cent protein, many essential amino acids, minerals (magnesium, potassium and phosphorous above all) and twice as much vitamin B2 and B3 as the more familiar kinds of rice – but contains the same number of calories.

To cook wild rice, first of all rinse it well in cold water, then simmer it for 45 to 50 minutes. During cooking it expands to three or four times its original size: fifty grams of uncooked wild rice will produce around 200 grams of cooked rice. If the wild rice has been treated with infrared light, then the cooking time is reduced to 25 minutes. Aficionados swear by the ‘butterfly’ method: this involves pouring boiling water over the rice three times in succession, allowing it to cool completely and swell between each immersion. According to master chefs, this is the best way to open up and loosen the grains of rice, and also to release their smoky, nutty aroma.