Jamie Oliver’s Jollof Rice
I think that Sunday Rice belongs in an encyclopedia. Seriously.
I really should get round to slotting it into wikipedia if no one else does for real.
SUNDAY RICE ; Definition – The habit of cooking and eating rice every Sunday by most Nigerian households.
Cooking anything outside of rice on a Sunday for me is kind of awkward and happens rarely. If i go visiting a Nigerian family on a Sunday, i typically expect that if i would be having lunch, it would be rice. Its almost certain.
It was also certain that i would change my Sunday Rice recipe for today to Jamie’s (a british celebrity chef and restaurateur) following the recent Jollof Rice brouhaha featuring Jamie Oliver’s twist on Jollof Rice.
If you are completely unaware as to all that has been steaming in the past few days you can get more insight here on BBC’s trending and under the hashtag #jollofgate here
It started with a recipe for Jollof Rice which was posted on Jamie Oliver’s website a few months ago and a few days ago, it began trending with various reactions, a large majority of people finding his interpretation of the dish “off”.
Initially, it all seemed funny to me and i dismissed it as banter but gradually as it escalated, i began questioning the reason for the adverse reactions.
…So i went back to the recipe. I had only seen the picture and casually gone through the ingredients list but the whole hullabaloo caused me to go back and read the recipe thoroughly which is why i wonder if anyone who finds Jamie’s interpretation offensive bothered to read the recipe the whole way through to understand it.
The recipe is in 2 parts. The first part has the chicken which is flavored with the coriander and then goes in the oven and then the “cherry tomatoes on the vine” goes in later to roast a bit.
The second part which is the main jollof rice recipe has the rice, onions, garlic, chili, parsley, tomato puree and chopped tomatoes and then chicken stock which is left to simmer and cook. These are obviously the regular jollof rice ingredients except the parsley which could pass for the curry, thyme or nutmeg that different cooks use as optional herbs and spices! Heck, i even use celery salt sometimes and it tastes wonderful in jollof rice!
Jamie’s Jollof Rice is then served “with” the chicken and lemon wedge on the side for “squeezing over”, which is completely optional so if you are a “traditional” African, do not squeeze the lemon over, it is not by force! Just consider it a garnish and move on….
Clearly, Jamie understood the whole essence of Jollof rice and clearly states in the write up before the recipe “…Because of this distance, and all the differences in culture and climate, the ingredients vary wildly, but the principle is that you cook your rice in a tomato sauce, so it soaks up all the flavors.”! What else is needed, i wonder?
As i prepped and cooked the dish today, i found that i could not fault the recipe. If you are expecting a party rice, agonyin smoky, or buka firewood style kind of rice, you are in the wrong place.
This is the rich, homemade style jollof rice that your mother made, bursting with richness and flavour! My kitchen and the whole apartment smell warm and inviting this cold cold afternoon.
Reflecting, i realize this is one of those times where we have judged a book by its cover without reading and without trying before “passing judgement and sentence”. …Much like picking up a CD for a music album or DVD for a movie and deciding from the cover that the album or movie is disappointing!
A vast majority of the comments in criticism have focused on the picture, the way it looks rather than in the recipe itself. I find that if there is indeed anything different in Jamie’s interpretation, it is the presentation of the dish but that shouldn’t be an issue still….
It is merely the interpretation of how Jamie Oliver sees Jollof Rice as an English man versus how i see the Jollof Rice as a Nigerian African, i presume. This does not in anyway take away from the essence of the dish.
In Jamie’s presentation, the chicken and vegetables are more dominant in the picture than the rice itself. In their style of cooking, the main focus of a dish is the protein; the meat or the fish but in our own style of cooking, the main component of a dish is the carbohydrate so the jollof rice will be more dominant in my presentation of the dish versus the chicken and vegetables.
Where they ask, what would you like with your chicken? We ask, what would you like with your rice? They say Chicken and Rice and we say… Rice and Chicken.
Us worrying about whether Jamie Oliver’s recipe will become the original recipe in a few years time is somewhat baseless. If i wanted an original and authentic pizza recipe, i would most preferably use an original Italian recipe! And if i was rich, heck, i would even get on a plane to Italy to learn the “Art of Pizza Making” from the artisans!!! Same goes for Spanish Paella and french croissants! Its just common sense…. or isn’t it? Now i am not sure with all those comments making my head hurt!
Its funny you know, funny because we can use whatever herbs and spices we like in a jollof rice recipe but because Jamie Oliver isn’t seemingly one of “us”, he is forbidden from “touching” the recipe?
While working as a manager for a catering company in Lagos, we were in constant search for the perfect jollof rice recipe; what ingredients and spices to add, and in search of the cook who could do it best, agoyin (local artisan cook) or not. We tried a varying array of herbs and spices, stock cubes and methods to get the most pleasing jollof rice for our customers.
I have tasted countless variations of jollof rice in my lifetime which largely varies based on who i visit or where i dine and my experiences and i can tell you that there is no one way of making it that is best.
The experienced agoyin woman cooks it and i love the smoky spiciness.
While i was at the University of Benin there was this restaurant called Toseton, a restaurant close to the University’s main gate and i loved the smoky, local taste of their jollof that shined a bright orange, so inviting you could hardly resist. I could feel like eating swallow and then when i get to the backyard of the restaurant, seeing them cook the jollof rice in large pots on firewood , i would immediately change my mind and ask for rice, swallow can wait another day! I overdosed on Toseton Jollof Rice for real! Its been ten year since i graduated from the University of Benin but i forget not and there is no way i would for whatever reason be driving by the main gate of the University of Benin that i would not stop by there for some jollof rice if they are still there and hopefully, the look and taste is still the same. Later came sizzlers in Benin and i just loved the addition of red kidney beans to their jollof rice and i can go on and on with the variations but i wouldn’t want to bore you any further.
…Then, I go visiting my mum on a Sunday and just love the warm homemade taste of hers filled with love which she sometimes does with chopped tomatoes much like the way Jamie Oliver has done his.
Today, i make Jollof Rice in different ways which largely varies depending on my experiences, what i have tasted and what i really feel like… Local? Or Smoky? Or homemade-like? Or whats available in the pantry….
Where does the curry, thyme, and nutmeg we see as “traditional” spices for jollof rice come from?. Which recipe exactly is “our own” recipe? Which herbs and spice are “our own” for jollof rice?
I could go on and on but i wont because whats important now is that i have a very tasty pot of jollof rice sitting on my stove with some juicy chicken to go with it for my household for lunch and i am so glad i chose to make the recipe today, so worth it!
If i were to rate Jamie Oliver’s Recipe, i would totally give it 4 stars out of 5 just because i had to use unsalted chicken stock so i could control the amount of salt i put in the recipe to my taste (i added 3 measuring teaspoons of salt) and because i feel it should have stated after where you pour the cooking juices into the rice and squash the tomatoes that you give it a few minutes to dry out on the stove before it is served.
Jamie's Twist on a Jollof Rice Recipe
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: African
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 8 chicken thighs
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- Vegetable oil
- 600g cherry tomatoes, on the vine
- 4 onions, finely chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, sliced
- ½ –1 scotch bonnet chilli, deseeded and chopped
- A bunch of flat leaf parsley, leaves chopped, stalks finely chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 500g vine-ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 750ml chicken stock
- 500g long grain rice
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. In a bowl, toss the chicken thighs with the ground coriander, white pepper and a pinch of salt. Add a glug of oil to a large saucepan and fry the chicken over a medium heat for 7–8 minutes, until browned all over. Transfer the chicken to a medium-sized roasting pan and cook in the oven for 30–40 minutes, until golden, adding the cherry tomatoes to the pan halfway through.
- Meanwhile, using the same pan you browned the chicken in, add a splash of oil and sauté the onions, garlic, chilli and parsley stalks over a low heat for 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato purée and chopped tomatoes, then pour in the chicken stock. Bring it to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the rice, pop the lid on and let it bubble away for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding water if it gets too dry. Finally, stir in the parsley leaves followed by the cooking juices and cherry tomatoes (discarding the stalk) from the roasting pan. Mix well, squashing the tomatoes into the rice.
- Serve the rice with the chicken pieces on top and lemon wedges on the side for squeezing over
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