Camargue red rice is a variety of

red rice Red rice is rice that is colored red due to natural anthocyanin content. It is usually eaten unpolished or partially polished, and has a red bran layer, rather than the more common pale brown. Red rice has a nutty flavor. It has the highest nut ...

cultivated in the

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s of the

Camargue The Camargue (, also , , ; ) is a coastal region in southern France located south of the city of Arles, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône river delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western is the ''P ...

region of southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

.Steven Fallon, Michael Rothschild, ''France'', Lonely Planet, 2000, p. 3

/ref>

History

Red wild rice had traditionally grown in the marshes of the Camargue. Shortly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

vast swaths of

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

es were desalinated. To boost the local economy, the previous production of salt was replaced by agriculture. Production of white rice was at its peak in the 1960s. By the 1980s this white rice had cross-pollinated with red wild rice, giving birth to the current breed of Camargue red rice.Rachel Bridge, ''My Big Idea: 30 Successful Entrepreneurs Reveal How They Found Inspiration'', Kogan Page Publishers, 2010, p. 18

/ref>

Description

Once the

husk Husk (or hull) in botany is the outer shell or coating of a seed. In the United States, the term husk often refers to the leafy outer covering of an Ear (botany), ear of maize (corn) as it grows on the plant. Literally, a husk or hull includes t ...

is removed, the

bran Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the component of a Cereal, cereal grain consisting of the hard layersthe combined aleurone and Fruit anatomy#Pericarp layers, pericarpsurrounding the endosperm. Maize, Corn (maize) bran also includes the p ...

is a brownish-red colour.Zoë Harpham, ''The Essential Rice Cookbook'', Allen & Unwin, 2004, p. 1

/ref> It has an intense somewhat nutty taste and a naturally chewy texture.

References

Rice varieties Camargue {{ingredient-stub