Thiéboudienne — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Senegal's national dish — rice cooked in a rich tomato-fish broth with stuffed fish and an array of vegetables. The broken rice at the bottom, crisped in tomato sauce, is the most coveted part.

Ingredients

500g firm white fish (grouper or snapper), cut into steaks
3 cups broken jasmine rice
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 ripe tomatoes, blended
2 large onions, sliced
1 large carrot, cut into chunks
1 small cabbage, quartered
1 large eggplant, cut into chunks
1 cup cassava, peeled and chunked
2 cups pumpkin, cubed
4 scotch bonnet peppers, whole
1/4 cup dried fish or fermented fish (guedj)
2 tbsp rof (parsley and garlic stuffing paste)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 cups water
Salt to taste
Tamarind juice for serving

Instructions

1 Make small pockets in each fish steak and stuff with rof paste (blend parsley, garlic, scotch bonnet, and salt). Fry the stuffed fish in oil for three minutes per side until golden. Remove and set aside. This step adds layers of flavour inside the fish.
2 In the same pot, fry the sliced onions until golden. Add the tomato paste and cook for three minutes until darkened. Add the blended tomatoes and cook over medium-high heat for fifteen minutes until the oil separates to the surface of the thick tomato base.
3 Add the dried fish, whole scotch bonnet peppers, and three cups of water. Bring to a boil. Add the cassava and carrot first as they take longest, then after ten minutes add the eggplant, cabbage, and pumpkin. Cook until all vegetables are tender.
4 Remove all the vegetables and fish from the pot and keep warm on a platter. The richly flavoured tomato broth remaining in the pot is what will cook and season the rice, giving it the deep red colour that defines thieboudienne.
5 Add the broken rice to the pot with the tomato broth. Add water if needed so the liquid sits two centimetres above the rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to the lowest heat, cover tightly, and cook for twenty-five minutes without lifting the lid.
6 The rice should be deep red, fluffy, and infused with tomato-fish flavour. Mound the rice on a large communal platter, arrange the vegetables and fish artfully on top. Serve with tamarind juice. Thieboudienne is Senegal's national dish, eaten communally from one shared plate.