Blueberry Wild Rice (Canada)

My great state of Minnesota has a lot to love, something I often have to remind myself in these cold, cold months. Just the other day I left the house cursing when it was many degrees below zero. Just a few hours later I noted how much nicer it felt...at 2 above zero. That's the mark of a true Minnesotan. So is making warm, comforting food on a freezing winter's night, which is what I chose for this week,

Usually the recipes I make for this blog are ones that come from far away places that I hope to see one day or want to know more about. This week I made a recipe from our close neighbor when I chose Blueberry Wild Rice, an Ojibway recipe from Canada. Of course, many bands of the Ojibwe people also call Minnesota home, and the wild rice is a staple of their culture.

What intrigued me about this recipe, beyond the pairing of the rice and berries, was the name. The Ojibway word for wild rice is 'Manomin' and the word for blueberries is 'Miinan.' Yet, the book only gave the English name, with the note that the Ojibway name for the dish was an entire sentence detailing the preparation. I tried to find the full name online, but haven't come across it yet.

What I did find was many variations of this dish, depending on the region and band associated with the recipe. Even the name Ojibway had many variations to the spelling. I've used two just within this post, depending on which region I referenced, though I mainly used the spelling from the cook book. Many of the recipes I came across in my search called for dried berries, though I used frozen. We ate this dish as a dessert, though it can also be eaten as a side dish, with a dollop of cream whipped with cinnamon. It was not a sweet dish necessarily, but the tart flavors combined with the cream quickly grew on us.

There are many rich cultures to explore within the borders of my own great state and beyond to our neighbors. The world community starts here. For us it started with two little boys, it continues with warm recipes on cold nights, and will hopefully be a journey that sustains us for years to come.