This is the Gambian variation of jollof rice. My mother would chastise me for giving that sort of a description after all… who am I to name the food of another country which is not my own? Needless to say when we had this when I was young, I knew no differently, it just looked like jollof rice with a little something special added to it; dried, salted fish. It is intensely tasty. (lamb jollof is pictured above but they look similar). There are several Benachin recipes on the web, however for some reason, mom’s method seems to be the only one that uses the salted fish as a flavour enhancer, rather than the actual meat of the dish. In fact, mom notes that she learned the recipe from one of her Ghanaian friends who had lived in Gambia before. On a recent visit, Mom made benachin with goat meat, and added salt fish to enhance the flavour. I prefer if the fish is salt fillet fish rather than the boney fish as it then becomes impossible to indulge greedily in the dish without fear of choking!
My recipe is a simplified version of mom’s classic.
Recipe
Tomato stew base (based on 1 x 400g can of tomatoes) Salted fish (tilapia) 2 cups long grain rice
2 cups hot or boiling water