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Rice Dishes

Coconut Jollof Rice

I wrote about Coconut Rice many moons ago. On the post, I remember writing about my disagreement with using coconut in Jollof rice because the flavour of the Coconut gets lost amongst the bold flavours of pepper and the powerhouse spices used in Jollof Rice. A couple of readers, didn’t share in that ideology and kept telling me to try it out for myself and see. Well, for Easter Sunday, try it out I did and I was correct. Coconut does add something extra to the overall taste of the Jollof rice, but in the sense that you will smell and taste Coconut in the rice on first bite, I humbly stick with my initial stance, but, you know with me, there will come a but, and by but, I mean there is a way around this. If I didn’t sleep cook this Jollof Rice it would have occurred to me way before I was almost done cooking the rice, but oh well, I will pass on the tips to you guys regardless. You guys, should please try it out and let me know.

I had a massive cleanup the 2 days preceding Easter, I was fagged out by Sunday. My neighbour and I planned to do a potluck Easter Sunday Lunch, and my contribution was Coconut Jollof Rice and Coleslaw. I told myself I would take a 30minute quick nap on the sofa, and resume cooking. Oh dear, I woke up 3 hours later, flew to the kitchen and started cooking. By this time it was coming on 3pm, so Lunch was over. My brain wasn’t actively registering what I was doing, I was just cooking by rote routine. If not for experience, my massive pot of Jollof Rice would have been a disaster. A huge soggy mess, which I quickly had to shake off the cobwebs from my eyes and fix it. Scooping out liquid from the rice before it cooked through. Two things, I picked up when my faculties were with me, were this:

  • To get that Coconut flavour in your Jollof Rice, do the pre boiling of the rice entirely with Coconut Milk or at least, in a ratio of 3:1 with water. To think, I had 2 spare cans of Coconut MIlk at home, my sleepy self thought one can would be enough.
  • #Tip2: This I picked up quite coincidentally when I was reheating the rice to take to Funmi’s. With Party Jollof Rice, my recipe says let it burn right? With Coconut Jollof Rice, double that time. Trust Me. You know why? Think Coconut Candy, think Baba Dudu, think Shuku Shuku (coconut rock cookie). It still hasn’t sunk in yet? Okay, okay, it is the caramelisation of the Coconut. Still don’t get it? The longer Coconut gets to interact with heat, with some “burning” involved, the stronger its flavour. Coconut has a very strange reaction with heat. At the beginning of cooking, you will smell and taste it without question. Midway through cooking, you almost lose it, with further cooking, if many ingredients are involved, it disappears completely. It was when I was re-heating the Coconut Rice for dinner at Funmi’s that I actually started to smell it when the rice was burning. My friend who came around after I cooked the Jollof Rice didn’t notice the Coconut in it. The entire flat was smelling of Party Jollof rice. It was after I told her to please re-heat the Jollof Rice while I take a shower that she said Dunni huh? Is there Coconut in that Jollof Rice? BOOM!!!!

I tested my theory again while re-heating the small bit of rice I used to take plating pictures. I let it burn, and voila, I could smell and taste caramelised Coconut in the Jollof Rice. It does truly add that something special to your party Jollof Rice. Here’s how

You will need

Easy Cook Rice
Tatashe – red bell pepper
Tomatoes
Tomato paste or Tomato puree – I used the Derica Brand
Onions
Curry Powder
Dried Thyme
Ginger
Chopped Carrots
Chopped Runner beans – green beans
Beef Stock
White Pepper
Vegetable Oil – I used sunflower oil

How To

1. As per usual. Blend your pepper with enough ginger, that you can smell it, boil your pepper, heat up oil in a pot, add chopped onions, curry powder and thyme. Fry the onions till it softens, add the reduced pepper and tomato paste Fry till it thickens. Add enough beef stock, and let it boil and bubble away. Adjust for salt and seasoning cubes.

IMG_9888_watermarked

this time, I exclusively used my homemade seasoning cubes. To know how I made the seasoning cubes, click HERE

IMG_9889_watermarked

2. While the pepper is doing its thing, proceed to washing the rice with cold water. Wash and wash and wash with cold water, until the water runs clear. Any cloudiness, still indicates the presence of excess starch. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: because this is coconut jollof rice, I am washing the rice first, as I am boiling the rice with coconut. Ordinarily, for Party Jollof Rice, I wash the rice after it has cooked to al dente.

Now, you have your well washed rice, pour into a pot and cover the top with enough coconut milk just to barely cover the rice. Remember, this is important, because you are not cooking the rice all through. Pepper sauce is still coming

IMG_9890_watermarked

see what I mean about the water/coconut milk level. Ignore the runner beans in the image. This was me sleep cooking. I was transposing my mother’s method of cooking runner beans with the rice for fried rice. Adding runner beans now, is way too early.

IMG_9892_watermarked

3. Once the rice has cooked al dente i.e. cooked but still firm, pour in the pepper sauce, and stir. Leave it to cook. Midway in, add the carrots and runner beans, adjust for salt and seasoning if necessary. Sorry, no picture here. If you need a visual reminder, click on my party Jollof rice recipe HERE.

4. With time, you would notice the rice grains have absorbed the pepper sauce, and is cooking along nicely, but not quite there yet i.e. totally softened. If you have no more liquid peeking out, just grab foil paper, place over the rice, tuck it in nicely and let it cook, plus burn. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: As it cooks through plus you letting it burn, stir every few minutes or so. This is to let the caramelising coconut flavour, emanating from the bottom of the pot, mix well with the contents of the top. You have to repeat this stirring cycle quite a number of times. You will start to smell the coconut yourself by the 2nd or third stirring cycle. 

IMG_9893_watermarked

5. Add in sliced onions and tomatoes. Give another final stir and lower the heat. Keep the pot there, even till you serve. Sorry, you will have a whole lot of washing to do afterwards, but you will get that Coconut flavour you need.

IMG_9897_watermarked

…and that’s your Coconut Jollof Rice. I garnished with round spring onions and carrots

IMG_9990_watermarked

IMG_9996_watermarked

Served in a Coconut Shell, just completes the look

IMG_0003_watermarked

IMG_0004_watermarked

For the Peppered Chicken, I made it on easy street. I just tossed the grilled chicken into the leftover pepper sauce for the Jollof rice. Added a little water, stirred, lowered the heat and let it combine. For Garnish, I threw in roughly chopped tatashe (red bell pepper) and onions.

IMG_9900_watermarked

For the Coleslaw, easy peasy too. Shredded and grated cabbage and carrots in the food processor. Thank you Mr Kenwood. It took all of 2 minutes.

IMG_9903_watermarked

Combined with mayonnaise, salad cream and a little bit of sugar. Stirred around and that’s it.

IMG_9907_watermarked

 

 

 


33 Comments

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FILED UNDER: Rice Dishes
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Dooney

About Dooney

Dooney is the blogger, recipe developer and photographer for Dooney's Kitchen. I spend my days trying to figure out creative ways to redefine Nigerian food, either by creating a new dish itself using ingredients in ways that have never been used before, or changing the approach to Nigerian cooking using kitchen gadgets.

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Comments

  1. AvatarCherry says

    April 27, 2014 at 10:31 pm

    Hello Dooney well done on the coconut rice. erm please have you ever tried baking buns? i tired looking for something to place the buns to retain its round shape in the oven while it cooks and the only thing i could get was the cupcakes papers. please have you tried it before was just wondering to see how a baked buns would come out as the oil it brings out when it is fried is really an issue for me.

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      April 29, 2014 at 1:51 pm

      Lovely innovative idea to bake buns. Using a cupcake pan that is lightly oiled with butter so it doesn’t stick, should be good enough to bake buns

      Reply
  2. AvatarMissus says

    April 28, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    Thanks for this, Dooney. Will be cooking this soon 🙂

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      April 29, 2014 at 1:42 pm

      Oh, please do and let me know how it turns out

      Reply
  3. Avatarmaria says

    April 29, 2014 at 9:23 am

    So inspired by your blog …..I need to get cooking

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      April 29, 2014 at 1:41 pm

      Oh please get to cooking Maria

      Reply
  4. Avatareno says

    April 30, 2014 at 8:40 pm

    I love coming here daily. May God bless u more and give you more wisdom.

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      May 1, 2014 at 10:18 am

      Aaaaw, thanks Eno. Amen and Amen. I appreciate it

      Reply
  5. Avatarnonye says

    May 3, 2014 at 8:19 pm

    Hi dooney,thanks for your post. how do I get the coconut milk. Is it something I can process with our natural coconut?

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      May 4, 2014 at 2:29 pm

      Hi Nonye, break a coconut, remove the shell. Cut the coconut into pieces, blend till smooth, sieve and you will have coconut milk

      Reply
  6. Avatarjane says

    May 4, 2014 at 5:31 pm

    I loooooooooove u 4 exposin me to diff dishes,am plannin on makin my meat-pie nd cookin dis coconut jollof rice.10k u a trillion tyms

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      May 5, 2014 at 10:39 am

      Please do Jane and let me know

      Reply
  7. AvatarAnn says

    May 5, 2014 at 1:45 am

    Thanks Dooney for the tips. I usually fry my sauce with coconut oil to enhance the flavour. Can’t wait to try it using your tips. God bless

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      May 5, 2014 at 10:38 am

      Hi Ann, thanks for the tip about Coconut oil

      Reply
  8. Avataradeola says

    June 3, 2014 at 2:32 pm

    thanks Donney, i will cook it dis wkend.

    Reply
  9. AvatarTee says

    June 15, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    Thank you so much Dunni! I really love anything coconut and have always wondered why mine didn’t have the intense coconut smell I wanted. I will definitely be trying it out this week, hope it turns out well #fingerscrossed.

    More power to your elbows girl, you definitely have a new blog follower in me.
    Might I compliment your picture as well, you’re so pretty. Don’t worry, I’m a lady too so not hitting on you…lol. Really, many thanks again.

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      June 16, 2014 at 7:20 pm

      Oh yes, that coconut aroma is the bees knees. Please let me know how it turns out and thanks for the compliments. I am blushing

      Reply
      • AvatarTee says

        July 1, 2014 at 11:05 am

        Made my coconut rice last week…
        I tell you it looked, smelled and tasted so gooood! I wish I could upload the pictures (yes, I was so proud I took a million pictures of it!)

        Thanks again and keep up the good work.

        Reply
        • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

          July 1, 2014 at 11:14 am

          Aaaaaaw, nice. Please send me an email. [email protected]

          Reply
  10. AvatarOlawunmi says

    July 23, 2014 at 12:13 am

    I decided to try this recipe yesterday.It was amazing.Well done Dunni. I really love your blog

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      July 24, 2014 at 1:04 pm

      Well done Wunmi. Happy to help

      Reply
  11. Avatardivinemoxie says

    April 5, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Thanks for the recipe Dooney! I made it today for Easter Sunday 🙂 Happy Easter!

    Reply
    • Avataronyi says

      April 17, 2015 at 8:45 pm

      Hello dooney as i write am in the kitchen trying out this recipe…am hopeful…..thanks alot

      Reply
  12. AvatarNora says

    April 14, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    how did you blend the coconut?

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      April 24, 2015 at 9:10 am

      with a blender

      Reply
  13. AvatarCee Leeya Okay says

    April 19, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    Hi Dooney, I”ve tried to share your gorgeous picture of the coconut jolloff rice but it brings up the training advert instead, not sure why.

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      April 23, 2015 at 10:22 am

      hmmmmmn, can i email you the pic instead

      Reply
  14. AvatarCee Leeya Okay says

    April 26, 2015 at 12:00 am

    Hi sorry I never came back to you. I was trying to pin it on Pintrest in my food and drink folder, I have a number of friends who are interested in Nigerian food, I can copy the picture from here but I can’t pin it, sorry to be a pain, I thought you should know.

    Reply
  15. Avataresther says

    May 3, 2015 at 9:39 am

    Dooney yoou are a food lovers muse, Cannot wait to cook this for my fiancé. tried it on my own today and it was heaven

    Reply
  16. AvatarRonke says

    May 20, 2015 at 1:41 pm

    lovely, how do I get the coconut milk?

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      May 27, 2015 at 11:11 am

      you can make it yourself at home, which is very tedious or buy in a can

      Reply
  17. AvatarChika says

    June 4, 2015 at 8:31 am

    Hello Dooney I’d love to make party coconut jollof rice for 30people this weekend. Please how much rice do I need and should I wash the rice before pre boiling?

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      June 4, 2015 at 9:55 am

      Hi, sorry but i have no idea. I don’t cook that portion in bulk yet and i don’t want to mislead you. No need to wash the rice if you are going to pre boil wash after

      Reply

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Hi, my name is Dunni Obata, and I am what you would call the poster child for redefining Nigerian food. Welcome to Dooney's Kitchen, the home of Nigerian centric food, detailed recipes and sharing personal stories. Read more...

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