Thieboudienne
Rice, fish and vegetables cooked in one pot. The national dish, and the reason lunch takes three hours.
SNSenegalAll Senegal180 minServes 8
Ingredients
- Broken rice, 1 kg
- Firm white fish, 1 kg, cut into thick steaks
- Cassava, sweet potato, carrot, cabbage, aubergine
- Tomato paste, 3 tbsp
- Parsley, garlic, chilli and stock cube, pounded together
- Dried fish and tamarind, to taste
- Groundnut oil
Method
- 01
Stuff each fish steak with the pounded parsley and garlic mixture.
- 02
Fry the fish in hot oil until coloured, then set aside.
- 03
Cook the tomato paste slowly in the same oil until it darkens — this step decides the colour of the whole dish.
- 04
Add water and the hard vegetables, then the softer ones in order of cooking time.
- 05
Return the fish, simmer, then lift everything out and keep it warm.
- 06
Cook the rice in the remaining broth, covered, until it has drunk all of it.
- 07
Serve on one large platter: rice underneath, fish and vegetables on top.
The story of the dish
The dish is credited to Penda Mbaye, a nineteenth-century cook in Saint-Louis. The name simply means "rice and fish" in Wolof — ceebu jën.