Diane’s Joloff Rice

Diane has cooked her Joloff rice at many of our settings, and it has always gone down well. Joloff rice is a West African rice dish, with various spices, vegetables and tomatoes. Diane explained that Joloff rice is one of those many dishes that each country claims as their own. Diane is Ghanian and her husband is Nigerian British. Many a heated debate at home revolves around which country does the best rice, which she explained is funny because her father thinks it is actually from Senegambia. Over time she explained many West African countries have adopted the dish. Diane learnt the dish from her mother who always put lots of scotch bonnet chillis in it. However she leaves them out as her children find this too spicy; instead adding in more ginger and garlic. She uses fresh cherry tomatoes, which give it extra flavour and sweetness She said her mother likes Diane’s rice, but is cheeky and refers to it as ‘English Rice’. She said her mother gets annoyed when her father says he likes Diane’s more than hers.

Ingredients

• 500 grams of basmati rice
• 400 grams of cherry tomatoes
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
• 1 teaspoon of pimiento seeds (whole if just adults or ground if feeding young children)
• 2 bay leaves
• Few sprigs of fresh thyme
• Half a teaspoon of ground turmeric
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
• Half a teaspoon of salt

Instructions

1. Using a food processor or hand-blender, blend the cherry tomatoes, onions, ginger and garlic.
2. Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan. Add the blended tomato and onion mixture, stir, bring to the boil then reduce the heat, cover with a lid and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring from time to time.
3. Add the bay leaves, thyme, salt, pimiento seeds and turmeric. Add 750 millilitres of water. Cook for a further 15 minutes.
4. Wash the rice and add this to the sauce, stir and leave it to cook on a low heat, check and stir frequently until the rice is cooked.