Twice as Nice
Blending rice varieties bumps up flavor in a festive side
By: Cooking Club
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 Blending rice varieties is an excellent way to give a dish a more complex personality. In Cranberry-Wild Rice Pilaf, the more delicately textured and lightly nutty-flavored basmati rice complements the chewy, bolder-tasting wild rice.
Basmati rice is a long-grain variety. The tastiest comes from India, where it’s cultivated in the flood plains of the Himalayan foothills. Its unique flavor is derived from the soil in which it’s grown and the aging of the rice. Look for it in well-stocked supermarkets and Asian stores.
Though its name suggests otherwise, wild rice isn’t really a rice; it’s the seed of an aquatic grass. And much of it isn’t actually wild; most wild rice is cultivated. True wild rice tends to be more expensive than cultivated, but it also cooks more quickly, has a more nutty taste and is less chewy. You can find wild rice in most grocery stores.
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