Vegetable Jollof Rice & Baked Mackrel

 

I love mackrel, especially atlantic mackrel which is common in Nigeria. It is very nutritious because it is packed with omega 3 and vitamin B. FYI, the beauty of cooking in your home is that, you get to decide the nutritional need of your family and instead of spending money in synthesized meds, you can save some money by cooking with ingredients that has such natural needed nutrient. Some people dislike mackrel because of its fishy smell. A quick tip here is; you can tame this fishy smell by washing and or marinading it with any desired citrus. My preference is lemon or lime juice and or zest. In this recipe, the fish was marinaded with my spice blend of seafood seasoning (available on my website, Nigeria and America)for 30 minutes and baked off on 350 degree F for 50 minutes. My recipe for rice is always same.2:1 ration if you like your rice soft or 11/2:1 of liquid to rice if you love it aldente which i prefer. My recipe here is 2:1 because my husband likes it soft.

Note:

Most rice recipes in Nigeria are often cooked dry, with over cooked protein so that as you chew, you'll be gasping for breath and water. It is a wrong method of cooking rice, especially the fact that we use long grain parboiled rice.

Cooking Method

saute onions, garlic and ginger to soft(transluscent)in olive oil or canola oil. You can add some butter (optional).Add tomatoes (freshly ground tomatoes and red bell pepper mixture or tomato paste). Cook for 2 minutes, then add rice and let toast as you stir for one to two minutes. Deglaze (simply means, add liquid to pick up every flavor bits that adheres to bottom of pan/pot. the liquid can be water, stock or alcohol). Season with salt and pepper and any other seasoning you have and protein-(protein used in jollof should be such that can cook within same time rice will take to cook, this is so that you dont end up with meat or fish that is under/overcooked). At this time, stir and taste for seasoning. Cover and bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer till liquid is completely dried, add veggies, in this recipe, I used mixed veggies. Fluff the rice so that veggies are mixed and evenly distributed with rice. You may wonder why add the veggies that late? Remember, if you overcook veggies, you waste their nutrient and looses texture and sometimes taste. The residual heat of the rice will cook veggies just to the right doness. This is spicy because I used orange habanero peppers. It compliments the fish and balances all other ingredients. You can add dry ground crayfish (optional).

Serve hot or warm very cold water, milk or Nigerian fruit punch.

Otoooo!