[size=14pt]Molara’s Jollof Beans[/size]


I’ve read that the word Jollof is another way of saying Wollof or Wolof; one of the languages spoken in Gambia and Senegal and a minute part of Mauritania, or that it originally stood for a combined dish of rice and fish also called Benachin or Ceebu Jen.


If I were asked what Jollof means, I would disrespectfully propose that it means “Enjoyment!” Isn’t that one of its most recent casual meanings? The other is formed from adding the word rice, both words standing for a famous ubiquitous red-faced rice dish served at most social Nigerian events and sold at most fast food joints. The only similarity with the original Wolof version is that it is cooked slowly in a suspension containing tomatoes, tomato paste, onions and hot peppers.



The Wolof version is grander, and more elaborate, cooked with spices and different kinds of meat. I would hate to say that many Nigerian jollof rices are pretenders. I have also tasted many delicious versions, the best in taste for me always cooked outside over firewood.
I was thrilled when I went to visit my brother and his family some years ago and my lovely sister in law, who I’m not flattering but is really really lovely in that salt of the earth fashion cooked something called Jollof Beans. I was immediately enthralled.
The word Jollof is already so gastronomically familiar that putting it in front of beans just made all my salivary glands go into overdrive. I love the facts that the recipe is like a family heirloom taught to Lara by her mother who was taught it by her own aunt 45 years ago. If I were Lara, I would never give away such a recipe without making the asker beg and grovel for it.


The first premise is of course beans, light brown small glossy black-eyed beans that the Yoruba call ewa oloyin (honey beans) because they say it has a superior sweetish accent to it, and it cooks quickly. If one can’t

buy the oloyin, the next in preference is “olo 1” which is the first of three grades in darker brown-eyed beans. Then there is olo2 and olo 3. Lara’s preference is olo 2.
There is also a trendy unclassified grade not quite white yet not quite brown from Kano, and not even available in Oyingbo, Iddo, Ikotun or Mile 12 markets, only in Abuja. I myself had no clue that beans had grades until a friend of the family called Ime Mukolu, who “knows her beans” gave me a summary on the complex fascinating, mind taxing negotiation of grades of Nigerian beans.
The beans are picked for stones, soaked for some minutes, the skin of the beans washed off as if one is making moin moin or akara. The beans are placed in a pot with just enough water to cover the top of the beans. The beans are cooked over medium heat until soft. Thereafter, blended peppers tomatoes and onions, (or just ground dried pepper) diced onions, a little tinned tomato, fresh shrimp and pieces of smoked Titus fish, stock, a little vegetable oil, and salt are added. All the ingredients are mixed together well and returned to the hob for about ten minutes. The end product should not be watery or thick. Total cooking time is about thirty-five minutes.
Lara lists Maggi as one of her ingredients, but I don’t see why homemade stock added as part of the water allowance at the beginning of cooking the beans and then again when all the other ingredients are added to the beans won’t do significantly better than Maggi.
When she gave me the recipe, I remembered an old forgotten passion for smoked Titus fish bought from the market wrapped in greasy old newsprint, the smell so gorgeous that the fish never quite makes it home to where it was intended for cooking vegetable soup. I would of course always give myself a roaring stomach ache since the handling of the smoked fish in the market is never quite as hygienic as one would like and the application of heat when one reaches the house is necessary to make it safe for consumption.



I must make a last reference to onions and their textural magical touch to food. It was Aunty Thelma who gave me an old hand secret about finely chopping or blending onions and how making a decision for either determines whether the stew or soup to which they are added is velvety or just plain smooth. One would imagine that blended onions give a velvety texture, but it is actually the finely chopped onions that melt down into a glossy velvety soup. I’m still trying to figure out the chemistry behind that.
So there is Molara’s understated but very successful Jollof beans with beautiful melted down onions, the dazzling smell of smoked Titus fish and the extravagance of fresh shrimp, eaten with dodo or soft bread rolls, thats Lara’s suggestion. I would eat it with a confident sprinkling of Ijebu Gari.

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