This is a Thieboudienne inspired dish (pronounced cee-bu-jen or che-bu-jen). Thieboudienne is thought to be the national dish of Senegal and translates to the rice of fish in the Wolof language in Senegal. It is a red rice dish, served with fish and a whole load of veggies.
This dish I am sharing here definitely has the essence of Thieboudienne, but is not quite to the level of authenticity that I would love to call this by its name.
I have labeled is “Inspired” because I have left out a few things that make this as authentic as it can be. 1. I used long grain white rice, not broken Jasmine rice. 2. Salted dry fish is often added to the stew, which I have omitted. 3. I used boneless salmon but you will often find this recipe with bone in fish like red snapper. 4. Thieboudienne can also be flavoured with what Ghanaian’s call Dawada and Senegalese call Netetou an aromatic spice made from the fermented African locust beans and finally, 5. Dried Bissap flowers or tamarind paste is sometimes added to flavour the stew. Yes that’s a whole lot missing hence the “inspired.”
Full recipe coming soon
Thieboudienne Inspired Red Rice and Salmon
Ingredients
Fish and Stuffing
- 5 salmon fillet
- 1 scotch bonnet finely minced
- 1/4 small onion very finely minced or blended
- Large bundle of parsley very finely chopped or blended
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil plus more as needed for frying
- Salt and pepper for stuffing plus more for outside of fish
Vegetables
- 2 large carrots
- 10 okra
- 1 small eggplant
- 1/4 green cabbage
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 large sweet potato
Stew and Rice
- 1 large onion finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 large tomato chopped
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 2 cups of water or stock as needed
- 2 cups rice jasmine rice long grain white rice, or broken jasmine rice
- Salt to taste
- Lime wedge to serve
- Chopped parsley to serve
Instructions
Fish and Stuffing
- Place your parsley scotch bonnet, onion and garlic in a food processor and pulse until very finely minced. You can also finely minced with a knife if you wish.
- Place this herb mixture in a bowl and add about 3 tablespoons up to ⅓ cup of oil to loosen mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remember, do not add too much oil, you want this to be a thick paste.
- Take your salmon and make slits, like little pockets into the salmon and place your herb mixture into these slits.
- Season the outside of your salmon with salt and pepper and set aside.
- In a heavy bottom pot, add oil and fry your salmon filets in batches until they are browned on all sides but they do not have to be fully cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Stew
- In the pot your fried your fish, add onions and saute on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add your minced garlic and saute for a minute then follow with your chopped tomatoes. And saute until reduced, mixing constantly to make sure there is no burning.
- Add your tomato paste, your garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne, and stir making sure there is no burning. Season with salt to taste.
- Add water or stock into the pot and season with more salt to taste. Add about 2 cups of water to the tomato broth forms. Taste and adjust, you want it to be salty enough because this is the broth the vegetables are going to be cooked in.
- Prep your vegetables by peeling and cutting to your size preference. Typically Thieboudienne has largely chopped veggies e.g. quartered cabbage or sweet potato cut in half.
- Add your vegetables in batches, starting with the vegetables that take the longest to cook so the potato and carrots. Once those are cooked through, set aside and cover to keep warm.
- Follow with the other vegetables like cabbage, eggplant, okra, and bell pepper. Boil until they are all done or to your liking then set aside and cover, leaving the remaining tomato broth in the pot.
Rice
- Wash your jasmine rice or broken rice and set aside.
- Place your rice into the stew mixture, top with more water or stock if necessary until the liquid is about 1 cm above the rice, place on low heat, cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed. This should take about 30 minutes. I typically have a look at 15 minutes, give the rice and gentle stir, place my fish over the rice and cover and return it to the stove for the reminder of the cook time. The fish should steam with the rice and finish cooking. Alternatively, instead of placing fish on top of rice for the second half, after plating, you can return the entire dish into the oven so the veggies heat up and fish finishes cooking, see below.
Plating
- When the rice is ready, in a ceramic pot or serving dish, plate your rice, layer your cooked veggies on top and your fried fish.
- Return the whole dish into an oven preheated to about 375 degrees and bake until fish it done, and veggies are fully heated through.
- Enjoy!