Pre-boil the rice first. Remember I wrote above that the rice is combined with a fried tomato sauce. To do this, you have to pre-boil the rice to start the cooking process. To pre-boil the rice, pour the rice unwashed into a pot with a lot of water. Tip: I will explain later why unwashed. Let the rice come to a boil till you can see the creamy starch floating on top of the water and the rice has now the white colour of boiled rice. Taste the rice and make sure it is all dente

Once the rice is al dente, pour out all the water and then proceed to wash the rice. By washing the rice at this point with cold water you are stopping the cooking process.

As they are larger food items, you pour into a bowl filled with ice cubes but with rice, simply decant the hot water into the sink and open the tap to maximum flooding the pot with cold water to stop the cooking process so the rice retains its al denteness
While the rice is pre-cooking, fry the tomato sauce with 4 – 5 cooking spoons of oil. You need this much to fry the pepper properly. To fry the tomato sauce chop at least 1 red onion, (2 if you are making a large quantity of jollof rice)

And fry lightly in your choice of oil. Once the onions are translucent add the reduced pepper from step Tip: If you have boiled the pepper properly, the frying process will start immediately. If not the pepper will boil instead and prolong the cooking time. Add curry powder and dried thyme in tablespoon increments, and taste every few minutes. Let your taste buds and personal preference decide if you want to add more. Be careful though you don’t want the spices to overpower

Tip: The stock is to help thin out the paste to reduce the chance of burning and to also provide salt and seasoning. If you add the paste straight from the can it will definitely burn.
Let the tomato paste fry with the pepper till it thickens and small bubbles form in the pepper which gives it a curdled look. Taste for salt and seasoning. If it needs more, add more. Now it is time to add the pre-cooked rice to the pot followed by more beef stock and then stir.

Old wives tale alert – the hired party cooks say stir with a wooden spoon and not a metal spoon to prevent the rice from clumping. How true this is, I don’t know but erm, I do it. Lol. Keep adding the stock till it just slightly covers the rice. Cover the pot midway and watch the rice closely. Once it has absorbed the stock, tear the seams of a supermarket plastic bag to make it flat or use a large piece of foil paper, place on top of the rice and seal the edges where the plastic bag/foil

Place on top of the rice and seal the edges where the plastic bag/foil touches the pot. it is important that you seal the edges so no steam escapes. Then you cover the pot properly.

Tip: this is to enable the rice cook in its own steam, so you will not need additional stock or water which is the main reason behind soggy jollof rice which ironically also burns. This is a tip I learnt from those hired party cooks. It will burn a little for sure, and you want that anyway

Anyway to create a smokey flavour. After a few minutes, check the rice and stir. If some bits have burnt, no problem, just try not to scrape the bottom of the pot harshly while you stir.