Wild rice dressing
I made this last night to go with a roast chicken, and it was very good. I'm not crazy about mushrooms, so I chopped them fine and sweated them away to nothing before adding the veg. I add salt to the vegetables. Wild rice is shockingly pricey, but worth it in small amounts.
1 cup wild rice
Salt
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped fine
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
2 apples, peeled and diced
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup walnuts
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1-2 Tbsp fresh sage, minced
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 to 3 cups bread croutons roughly equal to the volume of rice.
2 cups chicken, vegetable or turkey stock. You can replace some of the broth with apple juice if you like.
1 Parboil the rice until it expands.
2 Preheat the oven to 400°F.
3 As the rice is cooking, heat a large sauté pan on medium high for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and some salt. Keep them moving so they don't stick. Dry sauté the mushrooms, stirring often, until the release their water. When most of the water has burned off, add ground pepper to taste, 3 Tbsp of the butter, onion and celery and toss to combine. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.
4 Drain the rice when it is tender (most of the grains will have split by then) and add the rice to the sauté pan. Add the apples toward the end. You don't want them to disappear completely. Turn off the heat and add the seasonings, croutons, dried cranberries and walnuts. Add broth or juice and toss to combine; taste for seasoning. Salt if needed.
5 Put the dressing into a 9x13 inch dish. Bake covered 25 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.
Yield: Serves 4 generously as a side dish.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Wild rice grows around here in MN so I am familiar with cooking it and want to share a tip.
Usually, double the amount of water to rice and simmer it covered for 35-45 minutes until the rice kernels pop open. Thanks for the recipe - it's a new one to me. 
