The Ultimate Midnight Feast: A Sibling Jollof Journey

One night after a stressful day at school, I took a long sleep at night and woke up very early around 2:00 am, and I was hungry, craving jollof rice. I decided to keep my thirst and got back to sleep. When I woke up again, it was around 8:00 am in the morning. We finished all the chores, and I decided to go to school.

Before I went, I told my brother what I was craving, and we decided to contribute money and buy the foodstuff. While staying in school, I was thinking about the jollof rice.

After a full, stressful day spent at school and a refreshing service at church, I surrender the urge. My mission was known: head to the market and gather the ingredients for this sumptuous meal.

When I arrived at the market, it was very busy; sellers were busy selling out their goods for money. I went straight ahead to the exact place where I bought what I needed: Jollof party tomato paste, fresh pepper, some spices like curry and thyme, those golden cubes of ONGA maggi, and a bottle of groundnut oil.

Below are the ingredients

I got back to the house thinking my siblings were not back, but to my greatest surprise my sister @glorystar21 and my brother had already fried chicken and plantain. The kitchen, which was usually a quiet place, all of a sudden turned into a busy restaurant. Parboiling the rice was the first thing to do to avoid being delayed, which was tackled by me and @glorystar21.

After some minutes we sieved the rice, and we drained the water, setting it aside since it was a core item for the meal. Our big pan went on fire as I poured in the groundnut oil. Waiting for it to heat up felt like a calm ocean before turning to a storm.

Then we poured in our glorious mix of fresh pounded pepper and tomato paste. We stirred for two minutes, watching the red color deepen into a rich combination.

The next step was magical. We added water to the glorious fried mix of fresh pepper and tomato paste; you could see how beautiful it was. We started inviting all our spices to the party; the ingredients include the yellow curry, the thyme, the mysterious reddish spice called spicity, and four cubes of ONGA.

We brought back the parboiled rice back into the pot, stirring gently to make ensure that every single grain had touched the fried sauce.

For 45 minutes, the pot steamed and the great smells of my midnight craving food filled the house. We lifted the lid to find the rice good but needing a little bit of tenderness. We added a splash of water and surrounded it with a slice of onions and let it steam for a few minutes.

That final touch made all the difference. And behold, it was done; the craving midnight meal is ready.

Plated next to the post was plantain and chicken.The entire joyful, messy, and delicious process is captured in my video; make sure to watch it and share in our Jollof victory.

My Video