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Banga Rice

Also known as Banga Rice (Palm Nut Rice — Delta Style)

Banga Rice is a uniquely Delta State rice dish cooked in palm nut cream and flavoured with the essential Delta spices — oburunbebe, atama, uziza and ehuru. Unlike Jollof Rice which uses tomato as its base, Banga Rice uses fresh palm nut cream as the cooking liquid, resulting in a brilliantly orange, richly flavoured rice that is completely distinctive in the Nigerian rice repertoire.

Banga Rice, Nigerian cooking

Ingredients

  • 3 big cups of parboiled long-grain rice, washed
  • Thick palm nut cream extracted from a big pot of fresh palm nuts OR 1 large tin palm nut extract
  • Half a medium chicken, cut into pieces
  • 1 big handful of smoked catfish, soaked and deboned
  • 1 big handful of stockfish, soaked
  • 3 big handfuls of ground dried crayfish
  • 3 Atarodo (hot chilli peppers), blended
  • 1 big onion, chopped
  • 2 pieces of oburunbebe stick
  • 2 big handfuls of dried atama leaves, crumbled
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ehuru
  • A small handful of uziza leaves, shredded
  • 3 seasoning cubes (Knorr), crushed
  • Salt to taste
  • Water as needed to cook the rice

Method

  1. 01

    Cooking the Chicken. Season and cook the chicken with salt, seasoning cube and onion for 20 minutes. Remove and set aside. Reserve the stock.

  2. 02

    Preparing the Palm Cream Base. Extract palm cream or thin canned extract. Pour into a wide pot. Add oburunbebe sticks, crumbled atama leaves and ground ehuru. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes to infuse the spices.

  3. 03

    Building the Cooking Liquid. Add the reserved chicken stock to the palm cream to increase the volume of liquid. Add blended Atarodo, ground crayfish, seasoning cubes and salt. The total liquid should be approximately 1.5 times the volume of the rice. Stir well.

  4. 04

    Cooking the Rice. Add the washed rice to the spiced palm cream liquid. Add the cooked chicken pieces, stockfish and smoked catfish. Stir gently once to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to very low. Cover tightly and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until the rice is fully cooked and has absorbed all the liquid.

  5. 05

    Finishing. Remove oburunbebe sticks. Add shredded uziza leaves and fluff the rice gently. Taste and adjust seasoning. The rice should be brilliantly orange, deeply fragrant from the Delta spices and perfectly cooked.

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