Wild Rice, Sausage & Corn Soup

          As my mother explained it, wild rice was very precious and expensive because Native
Americans had to paddle out in canoes to harvest it as it grew in ponds and lakes in Minnesota and Canada and can you imagine how difficult and much time that would take!   So we ate it sparingly.  My dream of true wealth as a child, was to have an entire bowl of steamed wild rice in a bowl with a large pat of butter on top, seasoned with salt and pepper.  Ocassionaly I would sit side by side with my mother and do just that.  Even today, when I want to pamper my appetite, I do the same. 
          I have never met a dish with wild rice in it that I didn't like.  While living in Jordan, a Minnesota expat, served a rich, flavorful wild rice and sausage casserole for Thanksgiving. The ingredients were even harder to come by in Jordan - no ponds or lakes that grew wild rice and the right canoes, hard to come by, let alone pork sausage!  This Minnesotan who couldn't imagine Thanksgiving without it, had boxes of wild rice mailed to her from the states, which is how we expats endured being so far from American grocery stores.  We would bring the strangest things back with us from visits to the states - my most ingenious was what I called my "pork products bag" which held frozen bacon, pork roasts, hotdogs and tenderloins.   Because of our diplomatic passports, our bags weren't examined at immigration. I could have walked through with two pigs in tow but chose to bring in the already butchered products.
        This soup sings autumn harvest to me, but whether autumn, winter or cool spring it hums with the nutty flavor of the rice, the smokiness of the sausage and the sweetness of the corn and carrots.  The addition of the half and half lends a creaminess to this unusual soup and makes it one of my top 5 favorites!  

Wild Rice, Sausage & Corn Soup
6 cups chicken broth or water with chicken bouillon
3/4 cups wild rice
3 1/2 cups frozen or fresh corn kernels, thawed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 ounces fully cooked smoked sausage (such as kielbasa,
       cut into 1/4 inch cubes)
3 carrots, peeled, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups half and half (or 3/4 cups milk & 3/4 cups cream)
Chopped fresh chives or parsely for garnish

     -Bring 3 cups broth to simmer in heavy medium sauepan, over 
       medium heat.  Add wild rice and simmer over medium-low
       heat, until all liquid evaporates and rice is almost tender, 
       stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes.

     -Meanwhile, blend 1 3/4 cups corn and 3/4 cups chicken broth
       in blender until thick and smooth.  

     -Heat vegetable oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. 
       Add sausage and saute until beginning to brown, about 5
      minutes.  Add onion and carrots and stir 3  minutes.  Add
      remaining chicken broth and brings oup to simmer.  Reduce 
      heat to low and simmer about 15 minutes.

    -Add cooked wild rice, corn puree and remaining corn kernels
      to soup.  Cool until wild rice is very tender and flavors blend,
      about 15 minutes longer.  Mix in half and half.  Thin soup
      with more chicken broth, if desired. Season soup with salt and
      generous black pepper.

    -Ladle soup into bowls.  Garnish with chives or parsley and
      serve.

                                                    Chop and dice ingredients for soup

Here it comes...delicious, rich and satisfying!

PERSNICKETY P.S.

**There is a hierarchy in products used to add chicken flavor to soups that I like to share.

    Listed in order of richest and tastiest:

         1 - Homemade chicken stock - if you happen to have or want to make it!

         2 - "Better than Bouillon" (stock paste) my favorite and voted best by American

               Test Kitchen.  Found in stores by the soup section in small glass jars.

         3 - Boxed Chicken Stock (not broth)

         4 - Knorr Chicken Bouillon Cubes

         5 - Canned or boxed chicken broth

         6 - Other brands of bouillon cubes

    (Be careful when using bouillon cubes:  they are very salty so taste your soup before

       adding additional salt.)

**You can use any type of smoked sausage, pork, beef, turkey, combo.  If you don't have

    sausage, diced, cooked bacon would be a good substitute.  What you want is the

    smokey flavor from the meat.

**If you don't have wild rice, brown or even white rice may be substituted, but you miss

    out on the nutty flavor that the wild rice adds.  If you must substitute, cook the rice

    separately and stir in with the rest of the mixture just before serving.