My second attempt at cooking Jollof Rice
Wanting to broaden our library of Nigerian recipes, some weeks ago I made my first attempt at cooking Jollof Rice. While it smelt and tasted authentic, the consistency wasn’t right.
Gilly pointed out in the comments on that article perhaps we couldn’t get the same rice, which is a possibility. I thought to myself that paella and risotto are very similar cooking styles, so perhaps a different cooking container would work.
Paella pan
I bought a Scanpan paella pan in the hope this may help! My logic was sound, I thought! Not being much of a rice eater myself (I don’t even eat risotto much to horror of many friends), I really am not the world’s best rice cooker, still!
The pan sat in the cupboard for a few weeks (all that moving house stuff) but when I saw the International Food Festival at the Victoria Market recently and they had a HUGE (and I do mean huge) paella-style pan cooking away I was inspired to try again.
I decided to follow the same recipe as previously: during a certain stage of the cooking process I thought perhaps this was actually going to work!
Jollof Rice Cooking
Finally ready to eat, it looked like this.
Jollof Rice ready to eat
Still a little gluggy, or to be more precise, the rice isn’t dry enough. The kids say it should be the same consistency as rice comes out of the rice cooker, just red!
Maybe I have too much sauce to start with, thinking about the rice cooker. Maybe our red peppers make more sauce.
I don’t know, but I am determined to get it right. I’ve found some more recipes, one is very specific amout the ratio of sauce to rice.
As before, any tips gratefully received. After all, people manage to make risotto and paella here: there must be a way, even if, as Gilly says, the rice is not the same. Or maybe we just have to get used to a different consistency! Which will it be?
Okay, tip #1, Uncle Ben’s converted rice is your secret weapon. Next, no matter how little your sauce ingredients look, half it… Use half the ingredients and half the water. You can always add some back. I have to go back and look at your recipe to see when you mix your rice with your sauce… Also the stove must be on medium heat and you must periodically stir the pot. Vegetable oil is an important ingredient for your sauce too… The goal is fluffy rice coated lightly in red sauce; almost like fried rice.
We don’t have Uncle Ben rice and I don’t know what “converted” rice is? I’ll do some research and see if I can find out.
Hahaha excellent! It looks divine and ever so much like risotto!
I thought the consistency was OK, but I have nothing to compare it with!
It looks tasty.
It is tasty, but too much rice for me. This is part of my weight problem, I am just too tired to cook two different meals, so I end up eating what I shouldn’t!