How To Make Ofada Rice And Ofada Sauce

THE RICE

            Hello, it’s another lovely day with caterbakes.  As a chef,  many wonderful requests are often laid to your feet which you dare not say no to because first and foremost, you LOVE your customers. So some few years back,  one of my best customers asked me to prepare Ofada Rice and stew and some smallchops for her which I actually declined at first but upon seeing the disappointment in her face,  I decided to give it a trial after all,  Was it not just rice? However,  upon first woeful trial,  I realise it needed a careful study and I invited a specialist caterer who carefully explained and took me on the history and method of preparation.  Enjoy.
                       

Characteristics, history and health benefit

 Ofada Rice which is otherwise known as unpolished rice or brown rice is cultivated almost solely in southwest Nigeria, Ogun state and I even got to know the name of the community is called “ofada”; interesting right?  It is short and robust in shape with brown lines all over the length of the rice. It’s a beautiful rice however, I almost didn’t want to buy the rice when we got to the market because the raw unprocessed form looks so dirty.  I was like” are we really gonna buy that? ” anyway,  I was assured all would be sorted out during processing. My specialist now took some time analysing it’s benefits; Ofada Rice is rich in fibre almost like double of that found in normal rice which aids digestion,  weight-loss and cleanses the system. It is also very rich in Magnesium.

 Preparation

I got different versions of how to prepare the rice and I realise there are different versions because they all have different ways of removing the dirts and stones remember,  it is an unpolished rice.

Version1

General ingredients:  4cups of ofada Rice,  salt to taste and water
You will need to sit down and virtually pick and sort out the stones and dirts before it is washed thoroughly several times until you get a clear water cos trust me, the water can be very dirty.  Pre-cook or parboil the rice for like 10minutes,  rinse out the starch, put it back on fire and add water and salt to finally cook till its done.  Good method but I don’t find it funny picking BEANS not to talk of RICE!!!! What if I am preparing for a crowd which I usually do? 

Version2

This version I seem to favour and the steps are similar only different on the technique of dir removal.  The rice is washed thoroughly to remove the dirt not the major stone and pre-cooked for  10minutes.  It is then removed from heat, more water is poured,  the whole rice is lightly mixed so the stones might go down and taken with a sieve out just like our separation technique of solid of different sizes are done.  This is done more than once until all the stones are removed including the starch.  More water, then salt is added and it is returned to the heat for final cooking.  
 So here you have it.  You can try the two and let me know how it works out for you. Don’t forget to drop a comment, it doesn’t hurt..  Lol.. Then,  serve with ofada Stew popularly known as Ayamase(preparation in my next publication, don’t forget to read and comment here,  I will love to hear from you!!!!!!)

I'm a passionate professional chef. I run a food company called Baker's Cafe. I seek food knowledge and love to dispense it for your benefit alone.