Have you eaten banga rice? It tastes really nice, it’s like the regular concoction but this time it is prepared with banga concentrate, banga rice is mostly eaten by the Igbos and also people from Delta. It is easy to make and less expensive.
This rice is very delicious. Most people prepare this rice when they do not want to go through the extra stress of trying to fry the sauce for your jollof rice. A lot of people do not like banga extract, banga is palm fruit, it is a very natural and healthy food. It also has its economic benefits in Nigeria.
This article is not for those who do not like banga but for those who love it and would want to prepare the banga rice. The instructions and ingredients are stated below, all you have to do is follow them accordingly and you will have the delicious banga rice.
Ingredients for cooking banga rice
These are the ingredients for making banga rice you can add or remove it all depends on how you want to rice to taste.
- Long grain parboiled rice
- 400g tinned banga (palm fruit concentrate)
- 2 Smoked fish (smoked mackerels)
- 1 big stock cube
- 1 red onion (red onion recommended)
- 1 tablespoon ground crayfish
- 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- Habanero pepper (to your taste)
- Salt (to taste)
- Scent leaves (to your liking)
Notes on the ingredients for cooking banga rice
- You can used tinned banga or make your own
- I recommend red onions for Banga Rice but you can use any if you do not have red onions.
- Habanero Pepper is atarodo, ose oyibo or atarugu.
What you should do before cooking Banga Rice
It is important you prepare all these before making your rice.
- Rinse and cut the red onions into small pieces.
- Debone the smoked fish and break it into big pieces.
- Grind the cayenne pepper.
- Dice the habanero pepper.
- Grind the crayfish.
- Rinse the scent leaves and set them aside. No need to cut them.
How to cook Banga Rice
- Parboil the long grain parboiled rice. For the quantity of rice stated above, add the rice to boiling water, stir, cover the pot and once it boils again, leave to boil for 12 minutes or till you can easily cut the grain of rice with your finger nails.
- Pour the parboiled rice into a sieve to drain out all the hot water. Rinse with cool water to cool it down as quickly as possible. Leave in the sieve to drain all the water.
- Boil some water and use it to mix the banga concentrate. This is so that all the particles including sand (if any) will go to the bottom of the pot. You don’t want these in the rice.
- Slowly decant the mix from step 3 above into the pot that you will use to cook the Banga Rice.
- Add stock cube (crushed), crayfish, onions, salt and the ground cayenne pepper.
- Cover and leave it to boil.
- When it boils, add the parboiled rice.
- Stir and make sure the water is at the same level as the rice. If you parboiled the rice correctly, the Banga Rice will be done by the time this same level of water dries.
- Taste for salt and add some if necessary.
- Cover and start cooking on medium heat.
- When you can no longer see the liquid in the pot but it is not yet dry, add the scent leaves, diced habanero peppers and smoked fish on top.
- Cover and continue cooking till all the liquid dry up.
- When the water dries, stir very well and turn off the heat.
- Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.
