NAIJA SMOKEY JOLLOF RICE

INGREDIENTS:

4 big bell peppers

2 vine tomatoes

1 whole white onion

Note: You can increase the amounts of the three ingredients above depending on how many mouths you have to feed. The only rule being that the number of peppers should be double the number of tomatoes used, and the number of onions used should be a quarter of the number of peppers used)

1 Scotch Bonnet pepper (optional)

1 whole red onion

Half a cup of vegetable oil

A tube of tomato puree (sachet or tin tomatoes)

3 Bay leaves

1 tablespoon of dried Thyme

3 Stock cubes

2 tablespoons of All purpose seasoning

2 teaspoons of curry powder (optional)

Salt (to taste)

Long grain rice (1 cup per person as a standard measurement) The number of peppers, tomatoes and onions above usually work for 6 cups of rice. If you need to cook less rice, then reduce those ingredients as required. 

TIME TO COOK!

-Blend together the peppers, tomatoes and white onion. Set aside.

-Chop up the red onion and fry till translucent in half a cup of oil on medium heat.

-Add 3/4 of a tube of concentrated tomato puree to the red oil mixture and fry for 5 mins.

-Add the bay leaves, dried thyme, stock cubes, all purpose seasoning and salt. 

-Mix all of this together; Combine both the mixtures you now have, cover and boil on medium heat for 15 minutes.

-Wash your already parboiled rice and drain till the water is clear. This removes excess starch and helps the rice cook better.

-Once the stew has cooked for 15 mins, add the washed rice, and mix together thoroughly. Cover and cook on low heat, making sure to stir the rice every 20 minutes.

-Cook for a total of 1 hour then leave to sit covered for an extra 10 minutes.

You can spice up this recipe by adding 2 well known vegetables to arrive at what we refer to as Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice.

Serve with fried meat, fish, chicken etc...