Jollof rice

jollof rice

We had a lovely week long stay in Accra while visiting local social entrepreneurs. We stayed in an architectural, almost all glass building called the Peace House and our housekeeper, Pearl, was an amazing cook. The night we all arrived, tired and over heated, she made us her jollof rice. One bite and we were hooked. This stuff is amazing. After we left the Peace House we would miss her jollof rice and order it in restaurants, but they were never as good as what Pearl made.

spicy like habanero but so delicious

What makes the jollof delicious is the local peppers, they are small, green or red and spicy like habaneros. If I ingest one big bite by mistake I would start hiccuping. The tomato/oil (more oil than tomato) sauce that is used to top the rice adds that additional omph.

Our travel crew is reuniting next week and we plan to bust out our aprons and attempt to make Pearl’s jollof. If you are interested in making this dish, here is a recipe I adapted from Africanbite:

4 generous portions

• 2 cups long grain rice (eg Basmati)
• 4 large tomatoes
• 1 fresh habanero chilli pepper (or other fresh chilli pepper)
• 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (or more, if you like)
• 1 large red onion
• 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled
• 70 grams of tomato paste
• 1/2 yellow sweet pepper, diced
• 1/2 red sweet pepper, diced
• A handful of fresh green beans
• 2 small Maggi cubes
• Vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Peel the onion and cut in half, and put in a pot together with the tomatoes, garlic cloves and fresh chilli pepper. Bring to a boil and cook until the skin of the tomatoes starts peeling.

Put the boiled tomatoes and other vegetables in a mixer with a little of the hot water from the pot and mix until you have a smooth sauce.

Pour the mixture into a large pot, add the tomato paste, chilli flakes, Maggi cubes and some more of the hot water from the first pot and bring to a boil. Then turn down the heat.

Add rice. Cook until the rice is done. You might have to add some more water, depending on what kind of rice you use.

For simplicity I quickly steamed the diced red and yellow peppers and the green beans in the microwave and added once the rice was done, but you can also add them raw on top of the rice about 5 minutes before the rice is done and let them steam in the pot.

Once you’ve stirred in the vegetables it is ready to serve. Enjoy!