jollof rice

 

Last year I got into the "Jesus and Jollof" podcast a little bit (hosted by two Nigerian-American ladies); sadly, there have been no new episodes dropped lately. Anyhoo, I also listen to the "Happier with Gretchen Rubin" podcast, and one of her recommendations for a happiness booster was to make a dish or drink that you've only ever read about or heard about, but had never tried. So jollof rice it was! And I have since made it several times---it's so flavorful and packed with new tastes (new to me in that combination). Here's the original recipe, but I don't put as much heat in as it calls for. I do that at the table for my plate only with Tabasco or sriracha. I halve the recipe (the original one calls for 4 cups rice).

You'll need:

• 400 g canned tomatoes
• 1 red pepper, roughly chopped 
• 2 cups basmati rice, rinsed
• 2 onions (purple or white); one roughly chopped and one thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 cups stock
• 2 teaspoons butter or ghee
• salt and black pepper to taste

Do this:

In a blender, throw in the roughly chopped onion, the red pepper, the can of tomatoes, and 1 cup stock, blitz, then pour that liquid into a big pot and simmer for 10 minutes on the stove.

Also on the stove, saute the thinly sliced onion in a little bit of oil till soft, then put in a pinch of salt, pepper, the bay leaves, the curry powder, the thyme, and the tomato paste and stir around for a minute. Then add all that to the big pot of simmering sauce. Cook for another 10 minutes with the lid on.

Add the last 2 cups of stock to the big pot of tomato sauce and boil for a minute.

Stir in the rinsed rice, the butter or ghee, then cover the pot with foil plus the lid and turn down to low for 30 minutes without taking the foil and lid off. Then release the lid and foil carefully (lots of steam), stir, and serve with coleslaw, tomatoes, boiled eggs, and fresh sliced onions for the top. 

I can attest to the fact that this dish does indeed make me very happy. Thank you for the suggestion, Happier podcast!