Breakfast Fried Jollof Rice

As a kid, I was never particularly enthusiastic about rice. I didn’t dislike it– after all, it was a vehicle for butter and salt, and those are pretty much the only two attributes any food needed to be acceptable in my book– but it was just sort of…there. Never the star of the show, always there to round out the plate or soak up something saucy my mom had made.

The first time I experienced rice any way other than how I’d grown up eating it was when I left home for college. The cosmopolitan Manhattanites at my Central NY college stuck their noses up at the dining hall sushi, but this small town kid loooooved it. Nobody had ever told me that rice was delicious with a little salt, sugar, and rice vinegar mixed in! I still make sushi rice as often as I can justify doing so– I love it a little too much, so I have to limit its presence in my home. It is the one leftover my fiancé doesn’t even dare try to eat– he knows better!

Jollof rice is another rice dish I had to leave home to experience, and I love it perhaps almost as much as sushi rice. A classic West African dish, I’ve experienced jollof mostly as prepared by Nigerian chefs and friends, though like any regional dish, everybody makes it a little differently (and claims their own as the definitive/best)! However it’s been prepared, I’ve never met a jollof rice I haven’t loved, so when I got a hankering recently I decided to make my own. Lucky for me, there are tons of great recipes out there, including Yewande Komolafe’s version from the NY Times, which is the rendition I chose. As always, that shit was good, and since it made a ton of rice for just us two, there were plenty of leftovers to enjoy. Turns out, Monday’s jollof rice pairs very nicely with last Friday’s cauliflower butter masala. Who knew? (Me at lunch on Tuesday. I knew. Also my fiancé, since I kindly shared that wisdom with him in time for his own lunch because I am nice. I definitely didn’t strongly consider not telling him so I could eat it all myself. I would never.)

But as good as those Nigerian-Indian fusion lunches were, there’s no disputing that the single best thing I managed to do with my bevy of leftover jollof rice was to make fried rice with it for our weekend brunch. Fried rice is great all the time, with lots of kinds of rice. But starting with super-flavorful jollof rice gives you approximately 5 zillion legs up by the time you sit down to eat. Toss a little bacon in there to make it “breakfast”-ier and you have yourself a meal that nobody will be bummed about, I promise. In hindsight, I should’ve written this post immediately after eating the fried rice, because now I’m just unspeakably sad I’m not currently eating it. Guess it’s time to start another pot of jollof!

Breakfast Fried Jollof Rice serves 4 (adapted from Bon Appetit)

• 4 Eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 4 c. leftover Jollof Rice
• 1 T. Vegetable Oil, plus more for cooking
• Salt
• 1 small Onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp. Sugar
• 5 cloves Garlic, chopped
• 2 Chile Peppers, finely chopped
• 1 Hot Banana Pepper, finely chopped (a couple of hot peppers will do, whatever kind they are!)
• 6 slices cooked Bacon, crumbled
• 1 handful Chives, chopped
• Furikake, to season

Combine egg yolks and rice, stirring thoroughly so each grain is coated. In a separate bowl, stir 1 T. oil and a pinch of salt into egg whites. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cook egg whites until they’re cooked almost all the way; set aside on a plate and wipe out the skillet. Return to high heat and add a splash of oil, then cook onions with a pinch of salt until translucent (this will take just a minute or two). Stir in rice mixture, sugar, and another big pinch of salt, then let cook undisturbed for a few minutes until rice begins to crisp on the bottom. Clear rice from the center of the pan, then add a bit more oil followed by the garlic and peppers. Cook, stirring, for about a minute until garlic is fragrant, then stir into the rice. Cook, stirring occasionally (but only occasionally, so you get some nice crispy bits!) for a few more minutes. Return egg whites to the pan, stirring to break them up a bit. Stir in half the chopped chives and half the bacon just before removing your skillet from the heat. To serve, top with remaining chives and bacon, plus furikake if using.