Today being the 20th day of our story telling and another Owambe Saturday, i have decided to make smokey Jollof Rice in my blog’s kitchen🤗🤗 (i feel nice). Jollof rice is one naija delight that has travelled far and wide the shores of our great Nation. Naija jollof is a delicacy that symbolises happiness, celebration, party and fun.
There is this special joy that comes along with the sight of jollof rice, it feels like heaven. I call this cuisine a million dollar rice. Statistics made us know that people chose jollof rice more than they chose other rice dish (Na me form am o😂 😂 🤣 🤣). So today I’ll be talking of how to achieve that sweet, tasty and bright orange colour party jollof. Yeah we can’t achieve the smokey feel because we wont use coal pot or firewood (they are special, strong, stake holders in the smokey jollof rice ingredients).
How to prepare party jollof rice.
-The first thing you want to do to still achieve and enjoy that smokey jollof is, you need to use a bulk of your grinded pepper (tomatoes, rodo, onions, tatashe/bawa) to stew your protein (beef/chicken/turkey/goat). You fry the stew till its really dry, so that it must have started bringing out this “i go soon burn smell”(that’s the smell of coal/ash). Turn of the cooker immediately to avoid further stories😂😂.
-Now, its also important that the water to cook the rice consist of 60% of your stock, that is another special hack to this party jollof thing. Your stock is very important, so you strain the stock to separate the residue and bone from the water.
-Another hack is, ensuring you use bawa or tatashe in your pepper blend because they naturally make food very colorful and bright. It reduces the amount of tomato concentrate you will use.
-Another secret ingredient, is your bayleaf. Your jollof rice is not complete if bayleaf is missing. That bayleaf is the one that will make your neighbor know that something is happening in your house. But depending on the quantity you are cooking, don’t over use bayleaf if not, your jollof will taste quite bitter. So just 2/3 small leaves is OK for jollof rice for 4 mouths.
-Another ingredient is Butter, in place of vegetble oil. Butter is one ingredient to this thing called party jollof rice. It gives the meal this very nice flavor you cant resist. Dont over use butter, to avoid too oily jollof rice.
– You may also want to garnish it with sliced rings of tomatoes and onions. They come towards the end of the cooking.
-Use a wooden spoon to stir your ingredients, not iron spoon, to avoid the rice from burning quickly. Even though we need that burnt part for flavor.
-Once your jollof rice is almost dry, use your wooden spoon to stir the rice from bottom to top. Let all ingredients mix in together evenly from down to up. Reduce the heat towards the ending part and let it dry.-When the water is dry, turn off the cooker and leave the rice covered for 10 minutes, to allow the steam do the rest.
Our smokey party jollof rice is ready to be served. You can enjoy it with fish,meat, turkey, chicken, goat meat. And you can also accompany your Jollof rice with Moinmoin, dodo, salad, coleslaw, fried rice.
Anyway you decide to enjoy jollof please do, just ensure you enjoy your only one life and live a healthy life. Cheers to a hearty you!!!🥂🥂🥂
Written by: @swatzfood
Images: google images
Swatz Food 