Jollof Rice

Red bell peppers, a rich meat stock (chicken preferably) & bay leaves are your key points to getting the best taste and rice parboiled 'al dente' (cooked to be firm to the bite) is your key point to getting the best texture in Jollof Rice. **DeRica mainly enhances the colour of your rice - too much of it will leave a sour taste due to its acidity** recipe below is for 4 standard cups of long grain rice.

3 large bell peppers 1 tin peeled Italian tomatoes = approx. 4 medium fresh tomatoes (I prefer Italian tomatoes cause they're less sour to taste) 2 medium onions (white preferably) 85-90grams DeRica tomato paste 300ml rich chicken stock chicken stock cube, knorr cube, maggi sarap or maggi cube or onga cube (just mix what you prefer) 500ml sunflower oil, 50g butter, curry, thyme, jollof spice mix, 3-4 bay leaves, fresh pepper & salt. (garnishing is optional - in mine I have petit pois, prawns, red onions and baby tomatoes)

First blend bell peppers, onions and peeled tomatoes together and boil to evaporate water leaving you with a pureed paste; heat up your oil in a pot (about 500mls or a bit more - don't worry if oil looks alot, you need that much to easily fry your sauce after which you can drain some out - if you have less oil than your total paste, it takes forever so best just get it done with faster)pour in your paste in hot oil, stir ocassionally for about 20 mins - this should be enough time to cook it through. Now dissolve your DeRica in some of your chicken stock and pour into the fried paste, add 1 bay leaf, some curry, thyme and jollof spice mix and keep frying while stiring continuously for another 15 mins or so just to get your finished sauce tasting more sweet than sour from the acidity in the DeRica.

Next wash and parboil your rice al dente ( I usually don't leave my hob when I do this step as I may forget so I stir the rice twice just to get the heat evenly distributed) whole parboil process is usually about 5 mins - you want your rice coming out hard (harder than you would have it if making any other rice dish) wash and drain and pour back in pot. Now add most of your fried sauce (take out fried bay leaf and drain excess oil) and leave some behind for the finishing. add your stock, cubes, more curry, thyme and jollof spice mix, fresh pepper, 2 new bay leaves and about 400 ml water (when added to the stock you should have about 600ml liquid and you want to control this to get the best texture when done)

**if you're wondering "where's the garlic, ginger & cloves"? - that's why you need a rich stock base (which would have them in already) as these spices have a high flavour strength and you want a good balance at the end.I usually don't add these during main cooking as there would be loads already in the chicken stock and jollof spice mix but if you really need to, then yes you can.** mix and add salt to taste, cover and cook; check after about 20 mins - it should be burning beneath by now, stir lightly and check to see that your rice is not too hard, if it is, just add a wee bit water and cover back. after a few minutes, add your left over sauce and butter and leave to cook (if you want a smokey taste, you can lay a foil sheet over your rice and cover to trap in all the smokiness from the burning beneath). check back after a few minutes, stir again and take off heat. That's you done! **if you want to add garnishing, do off heat**

(plated picture was Christmas lunch - Jollof rice, slices of roast lamb & roast chicken, pigs-in-blankets, sprouts & carrots also pepper sauce for the meats.)