Jollof rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups of  long grain rice
• 2 400g tins of plum chopped tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 2 scotch bonnet peppers (or less)
• 2 Maggi crayfish stock cubes
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 1 tsp curry powder (optional)
• 1 cooking spoonful Vegetable oil

Put the rice on to boil for about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water until water is clear. Empty into a sieve to drain and set aside. Finely slice the onion, and set aside. Finely slice the scotch bonnet peppers and set aside. I’ve heard that the real chili heat is in the seeds, leave them out if you can’t handle the heat. Put some vegetable oil (not olive oil, not palm oil) in a pot and heat it up. Drop a slice of onion in, when it starts sizzling, add the rest of the sliced onions. Stir till the onions start to shrivel, then add the sliced scotch bonnet peppers. Keep stirring as they tend to burn the minute you take your eyes off them! When the peppers too start shrivelling, add the cans of tomatoes to the mix, and leave for about 5 minutes. Add the dried mixed herbs, curry powder if using and the stock cubes. Stir from time to time for even distribution and to make sure the cubes have melted. Some stock cubes can be very stubborn. When the sauce has fried properly, add the drained rice. All the above should be done on a high heat. Stir the rice rapidly to seal the grains, and prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When you see that the rice and sauce have become well integrated, put some salt to taste  in one of the empty tins of tomato, and top up with water till it is about three-quarters full. Swirl the water around a bit to dissolve the salt, then add to the rice. Turn the heat right down, and leave to steam for about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on whether you like your rice crunchy, like tuwo, or in between. Stir once halfway through, again to ensure even distribution of flavours. Once cooked, enjoy your meal.

I know there are over a hundred ways of cooking jollof rice, but this is the way I cook mine, and it turns out finger lickin’ good.

This is what I fancied cooking today, but my boiler issues only got sorted mid-way through the show, so I didn’t want to go into the ice-cold kitchen. We had Chinese takeaway instead.

Thanks for stopping by.