Nigerian Jollof Rice Recipe

Cooking jollof rice, a seasoned, tomatoey rice dish, is a ceremony of passage for quite a few West Africans. For quite a few many years, my personal jollof sport was shaky because I had puzzled its ubiquity with easiness. I had assumed it was easy to make basically since I had eaten it usually, at every single get together, Sunday lunch, and anything in involving, and so failed to enjoy how essential selected recipe methods were. I would rush by means of making the stew foundation with no building adequate flavor, decide on the completely wrong form of rice, and be undisciplined about my cooking process. Some days I’d stop up with a fantastic pot and other times, not. I’ve acquired a lot considering the fact that then, and now make consistently delectable pots. My biggest tip: Gradual-cooking the rice is one of the key keys to good results.

Pondering a great pot of jollof rice demanded minimal ability wasn’t the only incorrect assumption I built. I also assumed that it was Nigerian in origin, specified that I grew up there and it was a mainstay of the table. But in 2009, when my fascination in cooking persistently superior pots of jollof deepened, I began researching West African food items and how they traveled the earth. It was then that I discovered about the roots of this dish in the kingdom of Jolof, a historic 15th- to 18th-century point out in the Wolof-Senegambian location, on the southern edge of the Sahara far to the west of Nigeria. 

So how did jollof discover its way throughout the sub-Saharan coastline? In accordance to James McCann in Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine, the Dyula ethnic team, famed merchants who recognized trade routes all through the region centuries back, ended up dependable for the dispersal of jollof south of the Sahara, using it with them as they traveled. Currently, each individual nation in West Africa has a model of jollof, each individual reflecting its distinct record and influences. A number of locations further than the African continent also have variations that talk to how far it has distribute, particularly by way of the transatlantic slave trade—Lowcountry purple rice and New Orleans jambalaya in the American South are both equally descended from jollof rice. 

Jollof can get quite a few distinct names based on the area. In its birthplace of Senegal, it retains its Wolof names of thiéboudienne or ceebu jen, and in neighboring Gambia it goes by benachin. The people of Mali contact it zaame or nsamé. In the rest of French-speaking West Africa—Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coastline, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, and Togo—it’s named riz au gras (“riz gras” for limited). In English-speaking Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria, it is termed jollof. 

There are also endless shadings of variance from a person variation to the future. When Senegalese and Ghanaians go for versions of fragrant Jasmine rice, Nigerians favor parboiled or converted kinds, these types of as Golden Sella basmati rice, which cooks more rapidly and is fewer susceptible to mushiness and clumping. In Nigeria, Caribbean-fashion curry powder, dried thyme, bay leaf, ginger, and garlic are frequent seasoning components. Contrast that with the well known Senegalese seasoning of rof, a fresh parsley paste mixed with other aromatics and employed in mix with fermented seafood. A Guinean good friend of mine, in the meantime, provides refreshing tamarind to her stew foundation.

Full greens like carrots, eggplant, cabbage, okra, white sweet potatoes, and potatoes characteristic in thiéboudienne and other versions from French-speaking West Africa, but not in the Nigerian and Ghanaian variations. 

There are a variety of specifics that perform with each other to provide stellar jollof rice, which I would outline as rice that’s stewed and seasoned to perfection, with an orange-red color and separate grains that are neither tricky nor mush jollof should not be creamy like risotto. To avert this outcome, I stir only sometimes to facilitate the absorption of the sauce without the need of creating the creamy starchiness that weighty stirring (a la risotto) makes. I also cook dinner it on small heat for the majority of the time. When the heat is way too substantial, the pot of rice will cook dinner erratically and be at risk of burning at the base.  

Some browning on the bottom layer of rice is desirable, nevertheless. Jollof rice is ordinarily cooked on the stovetop or in excess of firewood. Overseas, in the diaspora, a lot of West Africans have explored and mastered oven-baked solutions, while other folks have made use of rice cookers and InstantPots to come up with even more methods. Though the outcomes are comparable, stovetop and firewood variations are the best route to “bash” jollof, a version that is outlined by its smoky flavor and existence of “bottom pot,” the crispy, toasty layer of rice that sorts on (as the identify can make apparent) the base of the pot, akin to Spanish socarrat. The immediate warmth from below is just what’s necessary to create that caramelized, roasty underlayer.

Jollof rice is not viewed as a facet, but the primary dish. It is frequently paired with beef, rooster, goat, and fish (fried, grilled, or stewed), or eggs (boiled, fried, or scrambled). In Nigeria, it is served with a salad that resembles an amped-up version of coleslaw. It may well also be accompanied by moinmoin, a steamed dish created with skinned, pureed black-eyed beans wrapped in the moinmoin leaves that give it its identify, or dodo—fried, ripe plantains. At least one particular or extra of these accompaniments is deemed normal.