Basic Jollof Rice is a traditional Nigerian recipe for a sew of rice in a chilli and tomato sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Nigerian version of: Basic Jollof Rice.
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Jollof Rice is a dish that's common to much of West Africa. Typically it's a one-pot dish of rice, meat and vegetables. This Nigerian version, however, is for a basic jollof rice; essentially rice cooked in a tomato and hot chilli sauce. This is a quick and economical version of Nigeria's national dish, jollof rice that's becoming more common as the ingredients to make the full jollof rice recipe become more expensive in Nigeria. This can be served as a vegetarian dish or it can be accompanied by fried, roasted or barbecued meat or fish.
Ingredients:
550g long grain white rice (Thai Jasmine rice would be typical)
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 hot chillies (eg Scotch bonnet)
3 tbsp tomato purée
1 onion, chopped
salt and black pepper, to taste
4 Maggi cubes (or 4 vegetable stock cubes with 4 tbsp soy sauce)
Method:
Pound the chillies to a paste then add he onion and pound in before adding the tomatoes. Make a smooth paste from these ingredients and set aside.
Rinse the rice and pick over then place the rice in a large pot and cover with about 1.5l of water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes now stir-in the tomato and chilli paste and the tomato purée. Add 4 Maggi cubes for taste then top-up the water (Jollof rice is a dry dish so you do not want to add too much water it's better to add too little and top-up as you're cooking than to add to much and have a sloppy dish).
Season to taste then increase the heat to medium high and continue cooking, covered, until the rice is soft. If it's too wet at this point, remove the lid, reduce the heat to a slow simmer and continue cooking until the rice dries out. Serve hot heaped on a serving tray.
