Benachin
The Gambia’s “one-pot” rice, a relative of Senegalese thieboudienne: rice cooked in a red tomato broth with fish and vegetables, the dish for family meals in Banjul.
Ingredients
- 500 g broken or medium-grain rice
- 4 firm fish steaks (grouper, meagre or tuna)
- 3 tablespoons of tomato purée
- 2 onions
- 1 bunch of parsley and 4 garlic cloves
- 1 carrot, 1/4 cabbage, 1 aubergine and 1 piece of pumpkin
- 1 chilli
- Oil and salt
How to make it at home
- Blend the parsley, garlic and a little chilli with salt, cut slits in the fish and stuff them with the paste.
- Brown the fish in oil and set it aside.
- In the same oil, fry the onion, add the tomato purée and 1.5 litres of water, and cook the vegetables in large pieces for 25 minutes.
- Take out the vegetables, return the fish to the pot for 10 minutes and set it aside too.
- Add the washed rice to the broth, cover and cook over a low heat until it absorbs the liquid.
- Serve the rice with the fish and vegetables on top.
The trick: The crispy rice stuck to the bottom is what everyone fights over at the table.