What's your name and where do you cook?
Martha Stoumen, in my kitchen in Santa Rosa, CA.

How you spend your days? 
Making wine!

What's special about this recipe?
This recipe comes from my dad’s mom: Grandma Junior, or Elaine to everyone else. When my parents got married, she typed up a recipe book for my mom as a wedding gift. I was very little when she passed, so this is my way of connecting with her.

This is a year round dish, kinda like a rustic & wild risotto. In the winter I eat this as a heartier side next to roasted chicken and wild bitter greens. In the summer I eat this as a main with a herby salad, grilled summer squash or grilled salmon. It's great with Honeymoon anytime of year since that wine is really the best all around white for food, but especially anything that has butter in it!

● 1/8 to 1/4 lb butter: Choose your own butter adventure. I use unsalted because my chicken broth has plenty of salt.

● 1 cup wild rice: A wild rice blend or half brown, half wild rice makes for a creamier texture

● 1/2 cup slivered almonds: If you are using whole almonds you will need to blanch them first and then roughly slice. No almond skins please, they ruin the texture. I've used Marcona almonds and they are delicious and fancy.

● 2 Tbsp aromatics: I use chive, onion and/or green pepper: You can also substitute a good grind of black pepper for this element if you don't have these ingredients fresh on hand.

● 1/2 lb sliced mushrooms 

● 3 cups chicken broth

● Optional: In addition to fresh, I hydrate a dried mix of mushrooms (porcini, chanterelle, morel, shiitake, etc) and add those, decreasing the chicken broth by the amount of hydration liquid.

 Get cooking

● Heat oven to 350℉ (177°C)

● Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a heavy frying pan or dutch oven.

● Add rice, almonds and aromatics, stirring more or less constantly for a couple of minutes (rice and almonds should be lightly toasted, not browned).

● Add the hydrated mushrooms and chicken broth. If using a frying pan, transfer mixture into a casserole dish for this step. If using a dutch oven just add directly to the pot.

● Cover tightly and place in oven @  for 2 to 3 hours, or until all liquid is absorbed and rice is soft but toothy.

Does no harm if it stands for a while, which makes it a perfect party dish.