Cultivated Wild Rice with Dried Mulberries

Why This Recipe Works

This recipe is inspired by the hand-harvested wild rice served by chef, author, and educator Sean Sherman at Owamni in Minneapolis, a restaurant and community “committed to revitalizing Native American Cuisine and in the process . . . re-identifying North American Cuisine and reclaiming an important culinary culture long buried and often inaccessible.” Sherman’s company, The Sioux Chef, also founded the nonprofit organization North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS), which is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship for Indigenous food businesses in tribal communities, “promoting indigenous foodways education, and facilitating Indigenous food access.” Wild rice (which is not actually rice, but a type of aquatic grass) is highly nutritious, has a delicate nutty flavor, and combines beautifully with sweet or savory elements. For this recipe, inspired by the dish served at Owamni that features hand-harvested wild rice, which cooks more quickly than the cultivated wild rice called for in this recipe, we simmered the cultivated wild rice in an abundant amount of water, along with sweet and earthy dried mulberries, a few aromatic sage leaves, a touch of oil for richness, and some maple syrup for sweetness.