Tchep Dien - Main course

Preparation time : | 1 hr |
Cooking time : | 1 hr 30 |
Location : | Maritime Guinea |
Vegetarian : | No |
Difficulty : | Difficult |
With : | Fish, Rice, Seafood |
Cost : | Quite expensive |
Cooking method : | Hobs / Fire |
This dish is originally from Senegal and is best known as Tchep Dien. In fact in Guinea, it’s called Wolof Rice, or in Sosso “Yolfè bandé” and in Fulani it’s called « “Gniri Djölfö». Wolof rice is usually a feast dish as it takes time to prepare and cook it. Come and discover the trick to do it quickly… I promise you my recipe is delicious, you will want more. Try it soon and treat your loved one.
Ingredients (For 12 people)
2 kg of broken rice
½ litre oil
2.2kg Fish (Red Grouper preferably, or you can take red sea bream, Sinapa or Tokhè Yèrè)
2 big onions
2 gloves of garlic
1 kg tomato puree
1 bunch of parsley
4 cubes Jumbo
2 Chilli or scotch bonnet
Coarse salt
Pepper
50-100 gr peace of Yét –sea snails and the Guedj-smoke fish, especially for the flavour it brings to the sauce. (Optional)
1/4 White cabbage
1/4 cauliflower (optional)
2 big aubergines
700 gr of carrots
3 Wild aubergines (diakatou / sougouli)
1 cassava
85 gr fresh okras

Preparation
Scale and clean the fish with running water.
Cut the fish in thick slices and keep it aside.
Bring to boil 2 litres water with salt.
Peel the carrots; remove the stalks of the okras, the wild aubergines and aubergines. Halve each vegetable.
Wash all the vegetables and put them all in the pot once the water is boiling.
Cook for about 20 minutes and keep the vegetable sock.
Meanwhile, prepare the fish stuffing called «röf »:
Peel the garlic, pick the parsley, peel and slice an onion into four.
Remove the seeds of the scotch bonnet chilli.
Mix all with the 3 jumbos and some black pepper.
Salt the fish with coarse salt and stuff them with half of the «röf » paste.
Keep the remaining of the «röf » paste.
Fry the fish in the deep fryer and set aside on paper towel (to absorb the fat)
In a large pot (non stick one) heat the oil and add piece of onions.
Once the onions are brown, put the coarse salt, handful of the röf paste and then the tomato puree*.
Add the crumble Maggi cubes. Cook for about 5 minutes. Tomato paste is cooked once it’s consistent.
See picture before and after cooking.
While the tomato sauce is cooking, wash the rice and steam it.
For about 30 minutes.
To check if the rice is well done use your finger: it should be compact.Turn off the heat a set aside.
Back to your sauce: Once the tomato sauce is cooked, add the vegetable stock.
…. the fried fish….
Add the yét and the smoke fish if you prefer.
… and then your cooked vegetables.
Cover the pot at half with lead. Bring it boil and reduce to a medium heat and leave it to cook for more or less 30 minutes.
Remove the vegetable once cooked….Five minutes after, remove the fish.
Check the seasoning of sauce (salt, pepper).
Remove some sauce with the vegetables and pour in the rice into the sauce, stir, and cover (if possible with a foil under the lid) and cook for another half an hour over low heat.
The rice is cooked when it crashes through your fingers and that the sauce in completely absorbed.
You can serve the rice first, in a large serving dish and add the vegetables and the fish. If you have some left over of the cooking sauce serve it in a separate serving bowl.
The upper crust of the rice is very popular. You can also serve it alongside the Wollof rice.
Tips and Tricks
Before you start please make sure you have one large pot for the vegetables, one pot that will not stick, one couscous steamer to pre-cook the rice and one deep fryer for the fish. The ideal is to have three fires at the same time.
* The secret to have red rice is to have tomatoes’ paste sauce well cooked….
Tip : To be quicker, I suggest that you use 3 fires at the same time (one to steam the rice, one to fry the fish and one to boil the vegetable. The wollof rice is also very good with Lamb or Beef.