NIGERIAN PARTY JOLLOF RICE

Hello guys! Who missed me? So it has surely been a heck of a week, but here we are! I've been stressed and energized, down and back up, moody and back to my fun self. No one has to know that right? Dust yourself up and go be the strong woman, everyone expects but guess what? It's allowed to be vulnerable, weak and even down sometimes but it is how long spent down that is counted. It's how strong we become when we get back up that matters! Talk to your special someone, it helps, it did mine! A special friend told me "Open a line of communication with your partner or whoever you've, speak up so he or she understands and knows how to help you". 

So to anyone going through it, shaken and feel like everything ends here and now, I'm here to tell you that it is never the end. God only tests His strongest soldiers; He wouldn't give us battles He wasn't sure we could come out victorious from!

Okay, enough of the emotional outpour lol, let us get into the business of the day or should i say evening as I've only just got the chance to make this post after all the cooking for the day.

As usual, we're going to lay out the ingredients so we can have a visual of what we want to work with.



                        INGREDIENTS

1. Rice
2. Bell pepper, tomatoes and scotch bonnet
3. Onions
4. Vegetable oil
5. Maggi
6. Salt
7. Tin tomatoes
8. Butter
9. Bay leaf
10. All purpose seasoning
11. Chicken stock 
12. White pepper (optional but helps)

                   PREPARATIONS

• Lay your ingredients out as mentioned earlier

• Place your pot on the stove, pour in your oil (I made use of the oil previously used to fry chicken)
• Pour your onions in

• Stir and leave to get translucent 

• Pour in your blended pepper ( tomatoes, bell peppers, scotch bonnets and onions )  and stir.

• Scoop in your tomato paste and stir until there is no more lumps in the pepper

• Put your spices in ( maggi, white pepper; optional , salt, curry , all purpose seasoning and bay leaf). Stir in together and cover up to fry for 15 to 20 minutes.

• When the oil floats to the top of the pepper, pour in your stock (chicken or meat but for this illustration, i made use of chicken stock) , stir and let fry for another 10-15 minutes.

• Wash your rice and pour into the pepper ( it is quite advisable to reduce the pepper so you can control the amount). Combine thoroughly with a wooden spoon (so it doesn't burn and prevents lumps) and make sure the pepper is only about a cm over the rice when combined as it is better to start with a little amount of liquid and add as you go. When fully combined, add in your butter and stir mildly. When that is done, taste and adjust; if needed, add spices not enough and if needed, put in your dry blended ginger and garlic.

P. S - the above picture was taken after the butter had gone in and cooked a bit. This was the part when the hunger really set in and I just wanted to eat lol.

Also note that jollof rice cooks with steam and not gallons of water, so you would want to add water little by little and keep stirring the rice so it doesn't break up nor turn too early.

Make sure to use foil paper to cover the rice before placing the lid of the pot. Like i said earlier, steam cooks rice. It is also okay for it to burn, that's what gives it the party signature. 

And voila, we have our J rice!

Oh don't be scared by the second plate lol. Remember i mentioned that i used chicken stock, well i have peppered chicken wings on the side. Peep those tomatoes used as garnish, ate them all anyway lol.

• The fried wings before peppered lol

Enjoy and make sure to send a pic, comment, stalk and subscribe! Let me know what you think in the comment section and if you've any meal you want me to try it out, feel free to let me know also. 

BYE LOVELIES!