THE PERFECT PARTY JOLLOF RICE to make at home l Ndudu by Fafa

Merry Christmas everyone and thank you for joining me and on this episode I've got my party jollof rice, the ultimate jollof rice. For the list of ingredients you need 1 tablespoon full of coconut oil, 500 grams of plum tomatoes, 2 tablespoons full of tomato puree, 100 milliliters of water, 3 ramiro peppers or any red pepper of your choice, 10 grams of chopped fresh thyme, 1 large diced onion, 15 grams of ginger, 1 teaspoon full of aniseed, 4 bay leaves, a pinch of mace, 1 teaspoon full of shrimp powder, 1 teaspoon full of ancho chilies which is optional and salt to taste. So I'm actually going to be roasting some of the peppers and tomatoes for that beautiful smokiness that I need for this jollof as always. As always be careful when you're dealing with fire. This method of roasting the peppers and tomatoes is actually inspired by my mom because I remember when I was back home in Ghana whenever we had raw pepper she would actually roast the tomatoes in charcoal and it was just incredible and smoky and just beautiful Blend your ginger, aniseed and onion into a smooth paste and set aside. Now place a saucepan on a high heat and add your coconut oil. The only time I'll tell you to cook on a very high heat. Add the onions and reduce the heat to a lower setting and fry the onions gently for about four to five minutes. Add the ginger, aniseed and onion blend and fry gently for about three minutes. Add 300 milliliters of water to your tomato paste and just mix it till it's smooth and once you achieve that beautiful double cream consistency just add it to your onion mix. Fry gently for about five minutes until you have that beautiful thick consistency. Finely dice your chilies and add your chilies to your tomato mixture. Add your shrimp powder and gently fry for about two minutes. This is just beautiful because it's just going to incorporate all the beautiful flavours in. I think that's just going to be just gorgeous. It's chopping time. Now chop all your peppers as well as your tomatoes and blend everything into a beautiful smooth consistency. Add your blended peppers and tomato mixture onto your saucepan and just continue frying nicely. Just leave this to cook for about 10 to 15 minutes. After 15 minutes add one teaspoon full of salt and also you add your chilies and just continue to fry your mixture gently for another 10 minutes. Add your fresh bay leaves. If you don't have the fresh ones you can use the dry ones and use about five of those. Add your maize. If you don't have maize just use a nutmeg and stir and cook for another five minutes. Wash your rice under warm water for about five minutes until the water runs clear. I think that this Christmas gelop is going to be incredible. Yet again I've just used coconut oil for this beautiful mixture and I think the flavours will work perfectly. I do like using basmati rice as well as jasmine rice. If you're buying basmati rice make sure it has a minimum age of 10 years and I love it when it's long grain and just perfect and as you can see I'm just going to add it to a nice stew. Now you'll notice that I'm actually using a different pot today but it's just to enable you to see what I'm actually making and I'm just going to fry this rice beautifully in this sauce that I've taken ages to make. Brendan and I said I have washed the rice until it did run clear and left it for about 10 minutes. For a quicker version you can just wash it in lukewarm water and that gets rid of a lot of the starch and I think with coconut oil when you put the coconut oil in it gives that benefit to the dish. Add 150 millilitres of water to your rice and alternatively you can use chicken stock or any stock of your choice. Now I'm actually using lemon thyme because it's got this aromatic lemony taste and flavour to it. I'm just going to add it to this mixture and it's going to be incredible. Cover the rice with a scrunched up greaseproof paper or baking paper. This will actually trap the steam in and would allow the rice to cook in its steam. It means less water but it means a beautiful fluffy rice at the end of it. Once covered don't be tempted to actually open the rice. Leave it alone. Let the steam do its job and it will be perfect in 20 minutes. I told you! Now I've got a fluffy rice and I love the fact that the lemon thyme is just infused into this. It's just incredible. You can use oregano, you can use sage, rosemary. I mean be creative, be adventurous. Now that my rice is ready I'm actually going to add some shine and flavours to it. I'm going to add some coconut oil just to finish it off and I think this is just going to be incredible because it's going to be smoky and then you've got that coconutty smell and then the freshness of the lemon thyme. I mean seriously Merry Christmas my dear. This is fluffy rice or party jollof rice. Thank you very much for watching and don't forget to share. Don't forget to leave your comments and try the recipe. I'd love to hear from you all. Much love. Merry Christmas by the way. Find more inspiring recipes on my blog indudubifufa.blogspot.com. I'm also on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as Indudubifufa.