Senegal’s ceebu jën, “rice and fish”: fish steaks stuffed with a herb paste, vegetables poached in a tomato broth, and broken rice cooked in what is left until it catches in a crust on the bottom of the pot.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Rice section’s regional pages and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.
Ingredients
- 1¾ to 2 lb firm white fish (red snapper or striped bass), bone-in, skin-on, in 1½- to 1¾-inch steaks
- 1 medium red onion, quartered
- 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger
- 6 garlic cloves
- 2 scallions, roughly chopped
- 8 to 10 parsley sprigs
- 5 to 6 dill sprigs
- 1 whole lemon
- 8 to 9 tablespoons peanut oil or neutral oil
- 3 large ripe, firm tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 large red bell pepper, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon dawadawa powder (fermented locust bean), or fish sauce
- 3 fresh or dried bay leaves
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 2 to 3 medium carrots, 1 medium sweet potato, ¼ small pumpkin or butternut, or 1 medium cassava, in 2-inch pieces
- ¼ small green cabbage, in 1-inch wedges
- 4 oz okra or green beans
- 3 cups broken rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 to 2 red or green Scotch bonnets
- Coarse kosher salt and black pepper
Directions
Key ingredients
Black Pepper · Fish Sauce · Salt
- Fish. Pat the fish dry, cut ½-inch slits in the skin, and season lightly.
- Rof (herb marinade). Pulse a quarter of the onion with the ginger and 3 garlic cloves, then the scallions, parsley and dill, to a coarse paste. Zest in the lemon and add 2 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Rub it into the fish and the slits.
- Base purée. Pulse half the onion with the remaining 3 garlic cloves, the tomatoes and the bell pepper.
- Sear. Wipe off the excess marinade and sear the fish in about 1 tablespoon oil, 3–4 minutes a side. Set aside.
- Sauce. In a Dutch oven, soften the last quarter of the onion, sliced, in 4 tablespoons oil. Cook the tomato paste until it darkens, about 4 minutes. Add the cumin, coriander, dawadawa and bay, then the purée, and simmer covered until the oil rises, 10–12 minutes.
- Vegetables. Add the stock, bring to a rolling boil and season. Poach the vegetables in turn, hardest first — roots 12–15 minutes, cabbage about 10, okra or beans 3–5 — removing each as it is done.
- Fish and rice. Poach the fish 3–4 minutes and remove it. Add the rice and the whole chilies, cover, and cook until just tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 15–17 minutes. The rice may scorch on the bottom, and that is as it should be.
- Serve. Lay the fish and vegetables back on top with their juices, cover 4–6 minutes, and serve family-style with the crust (xoñ) scraped up.
Notes
Source Adapted from Yewande Komolafe, “Thieboudienne,” NYT Cooking (2023).
A correction to the source It lists a whole lemon but its method uses only the zest; the juice is never called for.
How it differs from the UNESCO description UNESCO’s description of ceebu jën includes dried fish and molluscs, which this home version omits (the dawadawa carries the fermented note). The broken rice matches UNESCO’s description.
The Rice section’s West Africa and the Carolinas page (/rice/west-africa-and-the-carolinas/) covers the history and technique behind this dish.