Ah, Spring: Wild and Brown Basmati Rice Pilaf with Cranberries

I generally get kind of irritable about food (meaning meals, not baked goods) in the early spring. There is still no local produce and lots of non local produce is still not that tasty, and it is too chilly to grill, but suddenly I don’t want stews or curries or anything that cooks for a long time in one pot. This is not without exceptions of course, but it does make meal planning for us more difficult, especially when you consider our tastes run to stuff that is cooked with a sauce in a large pot, i.e., curries of all origin. Spring and summer is when I am most likely to make the occasional “component meal” (hunk of meat served with a starch and a veggie), even though we normally try to avoid this kind of diet, for health reasons as well as sustainability reasons—and on a different note, because I think it encourages pickiness in small children.

I have been craving wild rice lately, so it seemed like a sign that I should defrost a pork tenderloin for roasting (it was WAY too cold this weekend for grilling) and give in to my springtime urges.So I made a simple sugar/soy/garlic based marinade that 2 pork tenderloins (for 2 nights*) sat in all afternoon, and then pan seared them before baking them in a 400 F oven (actually for a while they cooked at 350 F to accommodate the recipe below).I pulled out some frozen broccoli and made a sauce for the meat: I toasted in a tiny amount of oil some garlic—about 3 cloves worth—and then added superior dark soy sauce and maple syrup with a splash of chicken stock to calm it down since it was pretty intense.If you use low sodium soy sauce maybe you won’t need the chicken stock, I am not sure.I did it to taste—adding more of one or the other to get the salty sweet balance right.If maple syrup is too dear, honey or brown sugar would work too, although I particularly like maple syrup with soy sauce.It did not make much sauce—it was more of a drizzle than a sauce, since the flavors were so intense.My family loved it drizzled over the pork lying on a bed of the wild rice (which I of course forgot to take a picture of).

The rice pilaf came out really nicely. The original recipe called for apple cider and dry white wine, so feel free to sub for the hard apple cider if you need to. It was what I had so it was what I used and it came out gorgeously. The whole family loved it, including John, who is fairly neutral about wild rice, and Alex, who is obsessed with pork tenderloin, but had seconds of the rice, not the pork.

*Note that the recipe below was for the whole family for 2 nights (and my family loves rice). Cut it in half if you plan it for one night only for 4 people.

Wild and Brown Basmati Rice Pilaf with Cranberries

Adapted from Epicurious (link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/15537)

Ingredients:

Brown Rice

12 oz chicken stock (low sodium if commercial)

½ medium onion, finely diced

6 oz brown basmati rice

2 oz dried cranberries

3 oz hard cider

Wild Rice

7 oz hard cider

12 oz chicken stock (low sodium if commercial)

6 oz wild rice

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare the wild rice first, as it takes longer to cook. Bring the cider, stock and wild rice to a boil in an oven-safe medium sized saucepan (I used 2 qt just fine). After it boils, cover it tightly and place it in the 350 F oven for 90 minutes.

Put the cranberries in a small bowl and cover them with the 3 oz of hard cider. Leave to soak for 30 minutes.

Drain the cranberries, reserving the soaking liquid.Heat an oven-safe medium sized saucepan and add the cranberry soaking liquid.When it is hot, add the onions and sweat them in the liquid until translucent.In the meantime, chop the cranberries.After about 8 minutes add the cranberries to the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes.Add the brown basmati rice and chicken stock and bring to a boil.Then cover it tightly and place it in the 350 F oven for 40 minutes, aiming to have both rices done simultaneously (or fairly close).

When both rices are done, mix them together in one of the pots or in a serving bowl.