Ghanaian Jollof Recipe!!
- Jun 12, 2020
- 2 min read
Hey everyone! It's finally here...yay! Today, I'm sharing my Ghanaian jollof rice recipe with you all. Jollof rice is a popular rice dish in Africa. Ghanaians and Nigerians seem to have friendly banter about who has the best jollof rice. Honestly, that is a conversation for another day but ofcourse, Ghana has the best jollof rice in my opinion! I usually cook with my instinct and "eyes" but I curated this recipe just for the purposes of this post so please share with your loved ones, try it out and let me know how it goes! Let's get to the recipe shall we?
Ingredients
The cup used in this recipe is the standard 8oz or 250ml cup
Two cups of Jasmine rice (any other rice will not give you optimum taste)
4 fresh tomatoes
8 scotch bonnet pepper (you may use more or less)
1 onion
1 table spoon of ginger paste or blended ginger
1 tea spoon of garlic paste or blended garlic (optional)
1/4 cup of oil
Cayenne pepper
4 table spoons of tomato paste
1 tea spoon of salt
1 table spoon of seasoning of choice (I use 1 Maggi cube)
A wooden spoon -- Yes, specifically a wooden spoon. A metal one will break the rice during the stirring process and ruins the perfect long grain effect we want. The Jollof rice becomes mushy and we do not want that!
Steps
Blend tomatoes, scotch bonnet pepper, ginger and garlic paste
Heat up oil
Chop onions and fry in oil until soft
Add tomato paste and fry for 3 minutes
Add tomato and pepper mix
Add salt, seasoning and your preferred amount of cayenne pepper
On medium heat, fry for 10-15 minutes or until oil begins to float above the sauce
Stir occasionally to avoid burning
Add your washed rice, 1/4 cup of water and stir
Place aluminum foil over the pot and cover it
Place your stove on low heat
If you have no access to foil, ensure the pot is covered with a tightly fitted lid.
Cook for 25 minutes on low heat
The foil or tight lid keeps the heat in, which in turn cooks the rice. The key to having the perfect jollof rice isn't water. Water just makes it mushy and sticky. The high heat pressure cooks the rice.
Avoid opening the pot unnecessarily. You may open it at the 15 min mark to stir.
If at this point the rice is too hard for your liking, sprinkle a little less than 1/4 cup of water mixed with a pinch of salt on it.
Stir, cover and allow to cook for 10 more minutes.
Now your jollof rice is ready!! You may pair it with some chicken, veggies and fried plantain.
This amount can serve about 3 people. I hope you enjoyed this recipe. I really think you all should try it out!
Thank you for stopping by today!
Until next time,
Be you, do you, stay you,
Adwoa.
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