Name: Jollof African Red Rice
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 4 red bell peppers; 2 medium to large onions; 3 bulbs of garlic; 2 teaspoons salt; 1/2 a Scotch bonnet pepper; 1/4 pound plum tomatoes; 1/4 cup sunflower oil; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or alternative; 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika; 1 heaping teaspoon tomato paste; Generous 2 cups chicken stock; 1 teaspoon red palm oil; 1 1/4 cups white basmati rice

Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell

This is the dish that first got me into cooking. Talking about it got me my first job in a kitchen, and together with the help of friends, local restaurants, and family it’s the recipe we have worked on the most for this book, because we all know how good it should be. If I could only eat one thing in the world it would probably be my grandma’s jollof. She would regularly cook a big pot with care and patience and insist that everyone took home a small container of it. Cooking the rice and storing it for the following day or to give to friends to take away is part of a sharing culture that surrounds jollof—just remember to return the Tupperware!

Cooks' Note

To 2 1/2 cups of cooking sauce; the ratio is 1:2 of rice to cooking sauce. Red palm oil, a staple of West African cooking, is available at Amazon.com.

Recipe notes

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