Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m so glad to be done. This year, I continued my personal tradition of cooking a nontraditional meal. Every Thanksgiving, I challenge myself to make something new or difficult—at least, difficult for me. And this year was no different! Not only was everything on the menu completely new, but I also took things international with the flavor profiles. Let me tell you, it’s nerve-wracking to cook all new dishes with no backup plan. Whew!
For this year’s feast, I went local with the Americas for loaded vegan nachos (complete with vegan cheese sauce) and crossed the waters for an African-inspired Pumpkin Stew and Jollof rice.
After a recent visit to my loctician (someone trained in the care and maintenance of dreadlocks, or locs), I got my first taste of her delicious Jollof rice. I immediately knew I had to learn how to make this dish. Unfortunately for me, she doesn’t use a recipe—she cooks as though she’s been making it all her life (and she probably has). Sigh. That meant I had to figure it out on my own.
I’ve since learned there’s an ongoing debate among several African nations about which country makes the best Jollof rice. I tried to find a recipe from her country… no luck. So, I settled for a recipe cooked in the style of a “surrogate” country.
The original recipe I used is no longer posted, but here is another based on the original: How To Cook Jollof Rice | TropicalSunFoods
What Would I Do Differently?
- Use less onion! I should’ve paid closer attention to the size of the onions in her video. The onions I bought were massive—one of mine was the size of two of hers.
- Soak the rice. I only rinsed it to remove the starch, but next time, I’ll soak it. Either that or use less water. My rice didn’t have those nice, separate grains. Instead, I ended up with a big pot of gummy rice, which is not what we want (lol, you’ll see what I mean if you watch the video).
- Make a smaller portion. There’s no way I can eat all this rice on my own!
How My Recipe Differed
- I didn’t have thyme, so I substituted Italian seasoning.
- I used a veggie cube instead of a chicken cube.
I can definitely see where I went wrong with the onions, and I’ll fix that next time. It was edible, but I don’t want edible. I want rice that would make anyone from the African continent proud. This batch? Not quite there.
Stay tuned for the do-over!
I’m very proud of you Ria. There’s nothing like too much onions in an African dish. Onion makes a dish taste sweet and delicious. Jasmine rice would have done the trick in place of the sticky rice. I wish I could have a taste of it though. WELL DONE!!!