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Jollof Cous Cous

As I said before in an earlier blog, “One day I am going to make jollof cous cous and jollof gari and post it on this page.”

This is the jollof spaghetti I made with brown rice pasta 🍝

That was my Jollof Spaghetti Or Pasta, Bulgur And Rice. Now it is time for me to deliver and I am delivering right now. Down below are the two pictures in an offset are my jollof rice and jollof bulgar from earlier posts. I am going to do a jollof gari one too in the future so sit tight and wait for this one.

This was a very fantastic dish with a lot of choices in protein such as lamb, beef, chicken, turkey both smoked and unsmoked, ox tails, veal, goat, tongue from cow, goat or lamb, kidney, liver and fish. Hotdogs, corned beef, and a can of lunch meat which are all zabhiha halal of course or 1 can of fish of choice either in tomato sauce or brine. Even shell fish is another protein of choice. There are choices of vegetables too like mixed vegetables which are my favorites, whole frozen okra, garden egg or eggplant and ugu which are pumpkin leaves.

If using the tougher pieces of meat cook in a pressure cooker. It is 1 lb or 1 kilo in 1 quart or 1 liter of water on high heat. Add 1 bullion cube and 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma. After safety button pops up cook for 30 minutes. Turn off heat and let the pressure escape. If the meat was still tough the first time around, add 2 more glasses of water and again on high heat for 30 minutes and again shut off the heat to let pressure escape. This should do the trick nicely.

If using kidney and liver clean and take the membraines out and that fatty thing from inside the kidney and the tough part from inside the liver. Clean in salt water and change the water about 5 times and then 1 tbs of white vinegar and rince 5 times more to finish cleaning the liver and kidney. If using fish some are too lazy to clean the fish properly so take a spoon and work from the tail on all the way down to the head to take the scales off. Make sure you use the front end of the spoon. The scales come off very easily. Take a knife like a paring knife and cut the belly open to take the insides out and remove the gills from the head. That is if the fish came with its head attached.

The kidneys, liver, fish and shell fish like shrimp should be fried in 1 oz of peanut, corn or canola oil until this type of protein is done and season first please before you start cooking.

The chicken and smoked turkey I would boil on stovetop without pressure cooker for 40 minutes on low heat. Season like the pressure cook method. Pressure cook and non pressure cook method keep the stock: this is s a must. If it is tongue you are using let it cool and peel the skin off. The skin comes off easily when done.

If you are using hotdogs, corned beef, other shellfish either fresh frozen or canned, or other types of canned fish or fresh or frozen vegetables and even dried ugu, just add the bullion cube and maggi or knorr aroma in to the stew base.

Sorry if this is kind of backwards so please bare with me. I made the stew base by adding to my blender 2 chopped green onions, or 1 chopped onion or shallot, 1 habenero or scotch bonnet deseeded, 1 tomato, 1 small piece of ginger peeled washed and chopped, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 red bell pepper and 1/4 cup of water for ease of blending to make the blended pepper sauce.

I used 3 to 4 smoked turkey tails this time for my protien of choice with some mixed vegetables. I removed the meat and stock in to a bowl and washed out the pot. I did not feel like dirtying up another pot. It is not that I am being lazy. It is not that way at all when I have already to work so hard.

To this now clean pot I added 1 oz of palm oil, the blended pepper base and if you boiled your meat with the bullion and maggi or knorr aroma, I hope you reserved your stock.

In my mortar and pestle I added 1 pinch each of whole crayfish and black pepper corns then grouned them in to a coarse powder and added it to now the stew base, I also added 1 pinch each of thyme, Curry Powder, paprika, white pepper, red chili powder and 2 bay bay leaves. Add 2 tbs of tomato paste.

Add vegetable and protein of choice except if you are using fish and other seafoods. This goes in near the end and so does the canned fish if using. If you boiled meat via pressure cooker or regular stovetop method it is now time to add along with the stock.

Liver and kidneys that has been fried also goes in near the end. If adding any of these things like canned fish, corned beef vegetables, hotdogs, zabiha halal lunch meat, add the bullion plus the maggi or knorr aroma to the stew base from the start.

You can even add the liquid like brine or tomato sauce that came with the canned fish. Also if you didn’t boil meat at all and just want vegetables add 1/2 gallon or 2 liters of water in to the pot and add 1 cereal bowl full of cous cous in to the pot and bring it to a boil.

When the cous cous which is Morrocan pasta btw starts to swell and absorb the water it is time to add the fried liver, kidney or fish if using. This is the way the fish stays in tact and doesn’t scatter and any type of fish is great for this.

If adding the meat you boild use the stock alone which is enough and adds flavor because the seasoning is added during cooking time.

If using canned zabhiha lunch meat and hotdogs cut it up in tiny chunks, corned beef crumbled and canned fish in either brine or tomato sauce, add them before you close the lid on the on the jollof cous cous.

Or if you want it plain this is ok too then just don’t add anything and have it as a side course it is ok too. With the vegetables and or meat it is the main course. Plain is not bad either just as long as you have some suya to go along with it.

This is even better to have moin moin on the side and a bottle of malt of choice. Ahhhhh!!!!!!!! MMMMMM!!!!!!

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