Jollof rice

As tradition built it

Serves 6. About 1 hour.

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken or beef, in pieces
• 2 onions
• 400 g tomatoes, plus concentrate
• 60 ml palm or vegetable oil
• to taste scotch bonnet, to taste
• 800 g parboiled rice

Method

1. Brown the meat, remove, and soften the onion in the same palm or vegetable oil.
2. Add the tomato and concentrate, and cook down hard until the raw smell is gone.
3. Return the meat, add water and chilli, and simmer until tender.
4. Add the parboiled rice to the same coloured, fat-rich liquid and let it absorb entirely rather than boiling separately.

What a modern chef changes

Parboiled rice used for what it actually gives the dish, not as an afterthought

Rung 3

Method

1. Buy or make genuinely parboiled rice, and know why. Rung 3: it retains substantially more thiamine than fully milled raw rice, and it re-sets after gelatinisation, which is why it stays firmer and more separate through this one-pot cook than a supermarket basmati or jasmine substitute will.
2. Do not substitute an aromatic long-grain variety for cost. Both basmati and jasmine have different starch behaviour and will not hold up the same way under this sauce.