Thieboudienne Recipe
Thieboudienne, meaning rice and fish, is the Senegalese jollof rice made up of broken rice cooked in a richly seasoned and garnished pepper sauce. It is the national dish of Senegal.
Ingredients
- 3 whole Tilapia fish this can be substituted with whiting, red snapper, whole salmon etc
- 6 cups broken rice
*Pepper mix*
- 5 tomatoes
- 3 large red bell peppers
- 1 white onion
- 3-5 scotch bonnets according to heat tolerance
*Marinade*
- Fresh parsley
- Spring onion
- Jalapeno
- 2 green scotch bonnets
- Garlic
- 1 onion
- Fennel seeds
- Black pepper
- Curry optional
- Salt
- Bouillon
- Ginger
*Vegetables & Others*
- 2 156 ml tins of tomato paste
- 2 carrots
- 1 sweet potato
- 1 eggplant
- 1 tuber of cassava
- Momoni cured fish
- 4 okra pieces
- 1 small cabbage
- 2 onions
- Garlic
- Salt to taste
- Bay leaves
- Canola oil for shallow frying
- 6-8 cups of water or as needed
Instructions
- Cut each tilapia in two and rinse well ensuring to take out the guts.
- Rinse and roughly blend all the ingredients listed for the marinade, you can use a food processor for this step.
- Make slits in the fish and incorporate half of the marinade into the slits of the fish pieces, coat the rest of the fish with the marinade and let sit overnight if you like or 45mins-1hour like I did.
- Boil the pepper mix ingredients and let cool before blending.
- Heat up large pot or skillet, add in about 6 cups of oil for shallow frying, the goal is to shallowly immerse the fish, not deep fry.
- Season the fish with salt and your seasoning of choice just before frying, make sure to flip over halfway through. Set aside.
- Drain the oil of any particles and add in about 2 1/2 cups of it back into the pot.
- Add in chopped onion and garlic, fry before adding in tomato paste. Fry till translucent.
- Go in with the leftover marinade and continue frying.
- Add the cured fish.
- Blend and add in pepper mix, continue frying and stirring to prevent burning for 20-25 mins.
- Adjust seasoning, add in bay leaves.
- Add in some water and introduce the fried fish to sauce it, let cook in the sauce for 5-10 mins. Take out and set aside.
- Prep cassava, potatoes, and the veggies and add them into the sauce to cook, take out and set aside in a warm place.
- Rinse broken rice to get rid of the starch before adding into the sauce.
- Use a foil sheet before covering with the pot lid to lock in the steam. Cook on low heat for 45 min or till you have your desired texture of rice.
- Fluff it out and plate the rice topping off with the fish and veggies.
Video
Notes
Thieboudienne is usually served hot on a large platter for everyone to gather and dig in with washed hands. Lime slices are cut and placed alongside the tubers and veggies.