Nigerian Smoky Party-style Jollof Rice

Step 1

Wash and roughly chop the tomatoes and bell peppers. Peel the onions and cut in quarters, peel the garlic and ginger. Place them in a pot with the tomatoes first at the bottom, also add the scotch bonnet peppers and a teaspoon of coarse salt.

Step 2

Place the pot over medium heat and cover with a lid. Do not add any liquid, the vegetables will produce their own liquid. Cook until all the liquid produced has dried up. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Step 3

Once cool, transfer the cooked vegetables into a blender and blitz into a paste.

Step 4

Peel and finely chop the onions, then place a pot over medium-high heat and pour in the vegetable oil. Add the chopped onions and fry until lightly brown. Also, add the tomato paste, with one teaspoon each of dried thyme, curry powder, ginger powder and paprika. Then continually stir and sautee for about 2 minutes

Step 5

Pour in the blended tomato mixture (be careful as this will create a splatter, so I recommend you hold a lid close to the pot to prevent the hot oil or sauce from splashing unto you), stir and allow to fry for 5 minutes.

Step 6

Rinse the rice and add it to the pot. Also add the bay leaf, the remaining teaspoons of dried thyme and curry powder, Maggi cubes (if you choose), and salt. Then pour in the meat stock, stir all together and bring to a boil. Stir one more time, cover with a lid and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the excess liquid is reduced.

Step 7

Now remove the lid and stir the rice from the bottom up, then cover with a large piece of aluminium foil or baking paper (this will help trap in the steam). Cover again with the lid, reduce the heat and cook for another 10 minutes or until the rice is soft but still firm.

Step 8

For extra flavour and moisture, once the rice is cooked and still piping hot, throw in a few cubes of butter, allow it to melt, then give the rice one more stir. Serve hot.

Step 9

Just before serving the rice, you can also toss in some raw slices of onions and tomatoes.