by Tim Billbrough
Introduction
With an unusually large burst of Awen this past January, though, I set upon a quest to feast the Wheel of the Year with a special food item for each of the eight festivals. In these dishes, I try to capture the spirit of the specific festival, my own native land, and the ancient Celtic culture we derive from.
I do not hold these dishes as special in and of themselves, but I try to make them special through the consideration, intent, and symbolism that goes into choosing what to make and the ingredients that go into it.
I have four rules that I try my best to follow in pursuit of this goal:
1. The dish must represent the festival in question, its themes and what we revere about it. This is how I honor the festival.
2. I must use only ingredients I grow myself/can source locally, or are native to my home in New Hampshire, USA. When I can do both, that is preferred. This is how I honor the land I live and practice on.
3. The ingredients must be seasonal to my own land, either through ripeness or appropriate preservation. My climate is slightly different than that of the Celtic Isles, so this is how I honor the Wheel of the Year itself.
4. The dish must be an interpretation of what our Celtic ancestors would have eaten around the time of festival. This is how I honor our Druid traditions.
Using these rules, I seek to channel my own self into my cooking and seek deeper connection between myself, my practice, and my land.
Symbolizing Alban Elfed
Alban Elfed is a weighty festival for me. As the second harvest festival, it represents the last day of the Time of Light of the year, when the sun begins to wane in its power and we approach the longest night at Alban Arthan.
As part of the basic Alban Elfed ritual, at least the older one, I have not looked at the more recent versions, we harvested the plant we seeded in Alban Eilir. To make the ritual my own, though, when I plant the seed at Alban Eilir, I also make a list of goals for myself to accomplish during the Time of Light, with a set end date of Alban Elfed.
As I water my plant throughout the spring and summer, it provides me a reminder to check in on my goals, with the idea that as I harvest my plant, I harvest the completion of my goals at the same time.
I usually don’t accomplish all my goals in time, or at all. And some years I don’t accomplish any. I’ve learned to include self-forgiveness in my Alban Elfed ritual.
I mentioned this past Alban Elfid that I grow native wild rice in the marsh on my property, and that I use it for Alban Elfed. Though I did plant them, they are a self-seeding annual and I do not plant them with intention every year. I typically harvest a single stalk for my autumn altar. The plant I seed at Alban Eilir differs every year, but it usually a flower that also graces my altar.
But the flower I planted this year, an amaryllis, isn’t edible. It’s actually toxic. That aside, the wild rice actually is, so I decided to harvest more than I usually do. Don’t worry, there are plenty in the marsh, I’ve been using it to replace the invasive narrow-leaf cattails that have been choking the marsh for years.
I have several reasons for choosing this rice. Not only do I normally harvest it during this time, it is a plant that needs to be frozen for a period of time to germinate. It needs the cold season in order to grow during the warm one. I feel this balance is a perfect representation for an equinox.
Additionally, the fact that it self-seeds also represents to me the self-forgiveness I built into my own Alban Elfed ritual. Representing both a harvest of the goals I accomplished this year and the forgiveness for the ones I did not; letting them freeze over winter to renew with the spring.
What to Make
Now, what dish to make with this rice? Plain cooked wild rice is simple and easy, but these are the bounty times, so I wanted to give it a partner to represent that.
One of my favorite rice dishes is mushroom risotto and, I thought, could I replicate that with wild rice? I decided to give it a try.
Making Risotto
Risotto isn’t a complicated dish, though it can be labor intensive. I made a simple vegetable broth with some of my garden’s bounty in the carrots, onions, and potatoes that were too small to store back and needed to be used as well as some parsley and thyme.
For the mushrooms, keeping in mind my rules, I acquired some local dried chanterelles from a reputable gatherer in my area. These are a spring mushroom, but since they were dried, they fit the rules. Fall mushrooms weren’t available and I am not confident enough to forage my own.
On that note, let me add a disclaimer. Do not forage your own mushrooms. Learning which mushrooms are edible and which aren’t isn’t something that can be reliably learned from a book. It has to be taught by an experienced forager. Don’t risk it unless you have such an experienced forager with you and you are absolutely certain of their credentials. The gatherer I purchased from is one such individual and holds a state license to do so.
Okay, with that out of the way, I chopped up the mushrooms and rehydrated them in warm water for two hours. You might be tempted to add them to your rice and cook them together. Do not. The concentrated juice they leave behind will overpower and ruin the risotto.
Then, lightly toast the rice in a dry pan for a few minutes before ladling in some stock. For normal risotto, you would only use one or two ladles of broth at a time, but that rice has been cultivated over centuries for the properties it has and will cook in about twenty minutes. This wild rice will take two to three times that long. So I put a bunch of stock in and just let it boil normally for about twenty minutes, until it had been mostly absorbed or boiled off. Then I began the classic one or two ladles at a time method. I added the mushrooms at this point.
Keep ladling in one or two scoops of broth and stirring until it is absorbed, then add some more. Go until the rice is cooked and somewhat creamy. Wild rice just doesn’t have the starch that cultivated varieties have, so it will never get as creamy, but you can still get some good body with it.
Once you reach that point, dish it up and serve! Enjoy with the blessings of Alban Elfed.
Conclusion
You might not have wild rice in your area, or cultivated varieties may be native, but take a look around and see what symbolizes the season for you. For me, this is the perfect dish for the Autumnal Equinox, for celebrating goals finished, and forgiving goals unfinished, letting them seed through the winter.
Recipe
Ingredients
One cup of eastern black wild rice (Zizania palustris)
Two or three dried chanterelles, or safe mushroom of your choice, chopped and rehydrated.
Vegetable stock, about two quarts, heated and divded
Salt to taste
Method
Lightly toast the rice in a dry pan for a few minutes before ladling in some stock.
Bring one quart of stock to a boil in a different pot. Add the rice and boil for 20 minutes or until the stock has been mostly absorbed or boiled off.
Add the mushrooms and more stock, one or two ladles at a time, and stir continuously until the stock is absorbed. Repeat until the rice is tender and relatively creamy, about 20 more minutes. You may use more or less of the stock.
Serve warm and enjoy!
