Wild Rice Cakes with Smoked Whitefish and Bean Spread

As someone who enjoys seeking out the best of local and seasonal foods, I was interested to learn more about true, indigenous, North American ingredients and recipes made with them. In The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman, everything used would have been available to Native Americans. I recently received a review copy of the book. There are no European-introduced foods like wheat flour, dairy, sugar, or domestic pork or beef. Many of the ingredients used here could be foraged, but there are also suggestions for store-bought versions and substitutions for harder to find items. And, modern conveniences like food processors and other appliances are perfectly welcome in creating these dishes. Still, these recipes result in dishes that are true to the indigenous way of eating which just happens to be low-glycemic, high-protein, low salt, often plant-based, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and gluten-free. Before reading this book, it hadn’t occurred to me that Native Americans used duck and quail eggs rather than chicken eggs, and that’s what’s used here. Although, large chicken eggs can be substituted for duck. There’s a recipe for Deviled Duck Eggs made with smoked salt and ground sumac and another for Old-Fashioned Cornmeal Mush with Poached (Duck) Eggs that look divine. The three sisters ingredients, corn, beans, and squash, figure prominently and in interesting ways. There’s Stuffed Squash Blossoms dredged in masa, Hominy Cakes served with Smoked Duck, and Hearty Mushroom Sweet Potato and Bean Soup. The proteins include fresh water fish and game like grouse, pheasant, rabbit, venison, and elk. And, there are several sweet treats made with maple syrup, maple sugar, and honey. I can’t wait to try the Maple Squash Sorbet with Cranberry Sauce in which roasted squash is pureed with maple syrup and cider before being churned into sorbet. First though, as a long-time fan of wild rice, I couldn’t pass up the versatile Wild Rice Cakes. They could have been served as a dessert with maple syrup and berries, but I went the savory route with a topping of Smoked Whitefish and Bean Spread. 

To make the wild rice cakes, you first need cooked wild rice. I sometimes have some in my freezer, but not this time. I cooked enough to use for this recipe and to freeze a bit for another day. The cooked wild rice is re-cooked until very soft, and then it’s drained and pureed in a food processor. The resulting dough is then mixed with salt and some cooked wild rice that was reserved before pureeing before being shaped into patties and fried on each side until browned. For the Smoked Whitefish spread, you need some cooked beans, and in this case my freezer came through for me. I had stored away some yellow-eye beans that worked well here but just about any type of bean would be fine. Smoked white fish was prepped by removing the skin and flaking the fish. I started by pureeing the beans in the food processor since they should be made smooth, then I pulsed the fish with some salt, oil, and ground sumac. I wanted the fish to retain some texture. The fish and bean spread was spooned onto the crispy wild rice cakes and topped with some sunflower sprouts. 

The whole grains of rice added to the pureed dough before making the cakes gave them great texture. They were crispy-edged and chewy in the middle. And, they made fantastic vehicles for the smoked whitefish spread. As with all the recipes in this book, straightforward and nutritious ingredients became a flavorful dish that could be served as elegantly or as simply as you wish. These very traditional foods are presented in a way that’s perfectly-suited to the here and now. 

Wild Rice Cakes 
Psíŋ Aǧúyapi Sáka na Hoǧáŋwičhašašni Ašótkaziyapi nakúŋ Waȟpé Skúya Yužápi  
Recipe reprinted from The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen  by Sean Sherman with Beth Dooley (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) Copyright 2017 Ghost Dancer, LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the University of Minnesota Press.

Makes about 4 to 6 cakes 

These are our go-to cakes for breakfast, as a snack, and as the base for a well-seasoned bison braise or duck. They’re especially good topped with smoked fish and our bright lemony Sorrel Sauce. Make them tiny for an appetizer or big for dessert slathered in maple-berry sauce. The recipe for these couldn’t be simpler. It’s just overcooked wild rice, pureed into a thick dough. We like to stir in a little cooked wild rice for texture. Once shaped, these will keep several days in the refrigerator, so feel free to make them ahead. Leftovers may be re-crisped in a low oven until warmed through. 

2 cups cooked wild rice 
About 3 cups water 
Pinch salt 
Generous pinch maple sugar 
3 to 4 tablespoons sunflower oil or more as needed 

Put 1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice and water into a saucepan, reserving 1/2 cup. Place over high heat, bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the rice is very soft and the water has evaporated. Drain. In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, puree the rice into a sticky dough. Place the dough into a medium bowl and work in the salt, sugar, and the remaining cooked rice. 

Scoop out a scant 1/4 cup dough for each patty and shape to rounds about 1/2 inch thick. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet and brown the patties about 5 to 8 minutes per side until lightly browned. Transfer the patties to a baking sheet and place in a warm oven until ready to serve. 

Smoked Whitefish and White Bean Spread 
Hoǧáŋ Ašótkaziyapi na Omníča Ská Iyúltȟuŋ 

Makes 1-1/2 cups 

This creamy spread is great with our Amaranth Crackers, or piled high on Corn Cakes, or Wild Rice Cakes. This is the filling for Stuffed Squash Blossoms. 

1 cup shredded smoked whitefish or trout 
1/2 cup Cedar-Braised Beans, or other cooked beans 
2 tablespoons sunflower oil 
Pinch sumac 
Pinch maple sugar 

Put the whitefish, beans, and oil into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse to create a rough, thick consistency. Season to taste with the sumac and maple sugar. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program. 
Tweet

Tostadas and Cooking Beans in a Wonderbag

Have you heard about the Wonderbag? I’m fascinated with its ability to slow-cook food with no power source. It was invented by Sarah Collins to reduce the need for wood fire cooking, free up time spent tending to meals, and lessen smoke inhalation from indoor live cooking fires. There is a one-for-one program, and for every Wonderbag purchased in the US, one is donated to a family in need in Africa. I received one as a sample for review. I’d like to quote a few interesting facts: “Smoke inhalation from wood fire cooking is the leading cause of death globally. More than 50% of premature deaths in children under five are related to household air pollution. Each Wonderbag saves 1.7 trees, 1,000 liters of water, and 1,248 hours of time not spent collecting firewood.” This is a genius tool for families that use wood fire for cooking, and it’s also incredibly useful and eco-friendly for families who cook with gas or electric stoves. It operates much like any slow cooker in that you can leave a dish for hours, but the dish needs to be heated to a boil first. The bag is made of washable fabric that’s filled with repurposed foam chips, and a drawstring pulls it tightly closed. It’s perfect for cooking things that would usually spend a long time on top of the stove or in the oven. Grains, beans, stews, and soups are all great examples of things to cook in a Wonderbag. And, a small recipe book comes with it to help get you started. A couple of things to keep in mind are pot shape and pot size. First, you’ll want to use a heavy pot with short handles that also has a lid. A long-handled pot won’t fit into the bag. Also, you’ll want to choose the right size pot for the volume of what you’re cooking. If the pot is too large and there is air space above the surface of the contents, the temperature will drop too quickly. My first use of the Wonderbag was to cook black beans, and it worked perfectly. 

I soaked the beans overnight. The next day, I drained them and cooked them in fresh water in a Dutch oven. The water was brought to a boil and allowed to boil for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, I skimmed the foam from the top. After 15 minutes, the lid was placed on the pot, and the pot went into the Wonderbag. You do need to place a trivet or a folded towel in the bottom of the Wonderbag so the pot doesn’t burn the fabric. There’s an insulated lid that fits over the pot, and the drawstring pulls the edges of the bag up and around the fabric-covered lid. I left the beans to slow-cook for about four hours. When I opened the bag, the pot was still very warm and I had beans that had cooked through completely without a stove or any energy source. I love stocking my freezer with two-cup portions of cooked black beans to use for tacos or to serve with quinoa. And, I used some of the black beans to make refritos. I always follow the recipe from Hugo Ortega’s Street Food of Mexico for refried beans. The cooked beans are pureed in a food processor and then stirred into minced onion that’s been cooking in olive oil. I used some of the refritos for Super Bowl nachos, and the rest were layered onto crispy tostadas. To make tostadas, I fry corn tortillas in a little canola oil and drain them on paper towels. And, then the toppings can go in all kinds of directions. The version shown here included refried black beans, sauteed red kale, and shredded Monterrey jack cheese. After those three toppings were in place, I broiled the tostadas to melt the cheese. Then, sliced fresh jalapeno, chopped lettuce, sour cream, salsa, avocado, and pickled jalapeno were added. For a different take, a fried egg would not be out of place at all positioned somewhere between the melted cheese and the avocado. In that version, I skip the lettuce and sour cream. 

I definitely have a new way of cooking beans, and I look forward to trying other things in the Wonderbag too. Another recipe in the booklet is for homemade yogurt. I need a small enough pot with short handles to make that work, but I can’t wait to do it. I was thrilled with my experience cooking with it, and that pales in comparison to what it offers for families who cook with wood fires. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Tweet