How to prepare coconut rice

Coconut rice is not just a healthy meal, it is also delicious, especially when you use matured-sweet coconuts. If you are looking to prepare this delicious meal but don’t know how to do it, here is all you need to know about preparing this tasty, nutritious rice meal. However the only difference between the usual jollof rice and coconut rice is the use of coconut milk; it changes the taste and impairs the colour slightly.

To prepare cocoanut rice, the following Ingredients is required:

Coconut (one big ball)

3 cups of rice (more or less as wished)

Fresh ground or sliced tomatoes (500ml)

Chicken/beef (2KG)

Onions (2 bulbs)

Maggi cubes (2-3)

Seasoning

Groundnut/vegetable oil half cup (150ml)

Salt and pepper to taste

Now that your ingredients are ready, let us get to the cooking.

Before you cook Coconut Rice, you will need to first prepare your tomato stew if you don’t have some in the freezer, then the chicken preparation comes in; if you will use a whole chicken, wash and cut the whole chicken into pieces. Place the pieces in a pot; add water till it just covers the pieces of chicken, add the chopped onions, stock cubes and thyme and start cooking. The cooking time depends on the type of chicken. Cook it till it’s soft and add salt to taste. Put the pieces of chicken in a sieve to drain, and then fry with vegetable oil. You can also grill it in an oven. This is to give it a golden look.

Now is the time to extract the coconut milk by breaking the coconut into pieces with a hammer, then pry out the coconut meat from the shell, wash the coconut meat and cut into tiny pieces then place in a blender, add a small quantity of warm water (just enough to allow the blender blades to rotate freely) and grind into a smooth paste. You can also use a grater for this purpose.

But a blender is more efficient, pour the mixture of coconut milk and chaff into a sieve with tiny holes so that none of the chaff gets through, then use hands to squeeze out as much milk from the chaff as possible. If you feel that there is more milk in the chaff, place the chaff in a bowl and add more warm water and squeeze again till satisfied. Now that the coconut oil is ready;

Parboil the rice and wash the parboiled rice and put in a sieve to drain. Now that all is set, you will just in the three steps below be ready to serve the delicacy.

Cooking Directions

Now we need a pot big enough to accommodate the rice till it is done. Bear in mind that the rice will normally rise by at least one quarter of its quantity from the parboiled state to the done state.

Pour the chicken stock, coconut milk and the tomato stew into the selected pot. Set on the stove to boil. Add the drained parboiled rice, salt and pepper to taste. If necessary, top up with water to bring the water level to the same level as the rice. This is to ensure that all the water dries up by the time the rice is cooked.

Cover the pot and leave to cook on medium heat. This way the rice does not burn before the water dries up. Confirm that the rice is done by tasting it. At this point your coconut rice is ready to be served.

Note that you need to spend some time looking for really matured coconut with sweet taste for a good delicacy.