Hello, I'm Mr. Ballam.

Thanks very much for joining me today.

This lesson is all about making Jollof rice.

Let's get started.

So what are we gonna learn today? Well, by the end of this lesson, you are gonna be able to use your food skills to make Jollof rice, and you are also going to evaluate it with other people in the class.

So let's look at some key words for this lesson.

So I've got four key words for you.

The first is West Africa, and this is the western region of Africa.

And this is where the Jollof rice originates from.

The second one is Jollof, and this is a popular rice dish originating from West Africa.

The third key word is absorb, and this is to soak up a liquid, and the rice will absorb water when cooking, soaking up the liquid.

And the fourth one is preference test.

And it's a type of test to see whether people like or dislike different types of dishes.

And you're gonna be doing this at the end of the lesson.

Okay, let's get started with the first part of the lesson, rice dish origins.

So Jollof rice is a popular dish originating from West Africa, and there are lots of different variations.

There's some from Nigeria, Ghana, and also Senegal.

But there are lots of different types, and there's lots of sometimes even regional competitions for Jollof rice.

And Jollof is made from a number of different ingredients.

Of course they vary, but pretty much is rice, tomatoes, red pepper, chilies, onion, and different spices.

Lots of different spice mix, depending on where you are.

And the ingredients and the preparation of Jollof rice, as I've mentioned, varies across the different regions, and sometimes other vegetables and or meat is also added.

And Jollof rice can be served with lots of different things.

So for example, it might be fried plantain, or it might be a bean pudding called moi-moi, or perhaps steamed vegetables or chicken.

So there are lots of different types of Jollof rice that are produced, of course, depending on the region of West Africa.

And also it's served with a number of different side dishes.

So let's see if you've been listening, shall we? So Jollof rice is a popular dish originating from where? A, B, or C? Yes, that's right.

It's C, isn't it? It's from West Africa.

Well done.

So culturally, Jollof rice is a symbol of celebration and togetherness, and often different foods from different countries have this appeal to people.

And Jollof rice is really a symbol of national pride, history and unity in West Africa.

And the rice dish is served at many celebrations, including birthdays and graduations.

Have any of you eaten Jollof rice? Perhaps someone at home has made it, or perhaps you've eaten it out.

It's absolutely delicious, and I really hope you enjoy making it today.

And as you can see in the photo here, it's great to have with other things, for example, coleslaw.

And it's a great way to get onto your five-a-day.

Now, Jollof rice is cooked in one pot, a saucepan, basically, on the hob.

And the lids is also used to keep the heat in the sauce pan, and the heat from the stock, the water, cooks and softens the rice.

So the rice grains, if you can imagine them in the water, they absorb the water and the stock, and the starch in the rice grain swells, making them soft to eat.

Now when you're cooking, it's best not to stir the rice.

Stirring, breaks the rice and can release some of the starch, making it very sticky, and it might feel a bit mushy or overcooked.

Now there is an exception to this.

If you ever made a dish called risotto, you are encouraged to stir it pretty much all the time.

And this helps to give it a lovely creamy texture.

So let's just check you've been listening, shall we? A true or false for you.

So when cooking most rice dishes, it is important to stir continually.

True or false? Yes, that's false, isn't it? And why is that? Well, stirring the rice breaks down the rice grains and releases the starch.

And this gives it a mushy or overcooked texture.

Well done if you got that correct.

So we're looking at Jollof rice today, but rice features in many cuisines and dishes around the world.

And here's just a few that we're going to look at.

So the first one is something from Spain.

Do you know what this one's called? Can you tell me? Yes, that's right, it's paella.

And paella is a traditional Spanish dish, and it's made in a very flat pan called a paella pan.

And it uses lots of different ingredients, lots of spices, lots of vegetables, and can include seafood as well as meat.

Another one is from India.

Can you think what this one is? Yes, that's a biryani.

You may have had this before.

And again, it's a delicious fragrant rice dish using different vegetables within it.

It can also include different types of meat too.

Another one, we've just talked about this one from Italy.

Can you guess what this one is from the picture? Do you remember I said you had to stir it continuously when you were cooking.

Yes, that's right, it's risotto, a very popular dish.

And risotto, again, can have lots of different flavours, lots of different vegetables, and may include seafood, fish, or meat.

And the next one's from Indonesia, and if you look really carefully, you can see there's a mound of rice in the middle, and there's a fried egg on top.

Have any of you had this before? Do you know what the name is? That's right, it's nasi goreng, and it's a traditional Indonesian dish.

Let's move on to the last one.

And this one's from South Korea.

And again, this one has rice, vegetables, it may include meat, and I've even seen pictures with an egg on top as well.

And this one's called bibimbap.

And it's a traditional South Korean dish.

So there are lots of different rice dishes around the world, and Jollof rice is one of those fantastic dishes too.

Do you have a favourite rice dish? What is it? Why do you like it? Okay, I've got a little tasks for you now, and I want you to use recipe books and websites, or you may even know them yourself, and I want you to list the main ingredients for three different rice dishes.

Good luck.

You may wanna pause the video, and we'll come back very shortly to see how you've got on.

Okay, let's have a look at an example, shall we? I'm sure you've come up with three brilliant ideas.

But here's just three examples that you could have selected.

The first one is Nigeria, and it's the Jollof rice that we've been talking about today.

And the main ingredients of this are rice, which makes sense, tomatoes, onion, red peppers, stock, spices, and a bay leaf.

So that's very traditional.

The other one is from United States of America, a jambalaya.

And this is a very traditional dish there, and it's got rice, meat or seafood, vegetable stock, and different seasonings too.

And the third example we talked about, this one was from Spain, and it's a paella.

And that's got rice, different types of meat and seafood, sometimes, vegetables, stock, paprika.

And one of the things that gives its distinctive colour is saffron.

So well done for coming up with three brilliant rice dishes from around the world.

So let's move on to the next part of the lesson, which is all about making and evaluating Jollof rice.

So when we make Jollof rice, we're gonna be using different types of food skills, and one of them is measuring, and it's an really important skill to make sure we get right so we're accurate and precise.

So we're gonna be using the weighing scales and we're gonna be weighing the rice, we're gonna be using the measuring jug to the water, which will be the stock.

And then we'll be using the measuring spoons for the spices.

So remember, we must weigh accurately for great results, so whether we're using the weighing scales, the measuring jug, or the measuring spoons.

Another food skill we're gonna be using today is cutting.

And you'll probably be quite familiar with these now, but it's good to practise these skills.

So you get them absolutely spot on, you're safe.

And then you increase your accuracy and your precision too.

So the first one we're gonna use is the bridge hold.

And you may remember this one.

It's a really safe cutting technique.

Really it's used for cutting things in half or into quarters.

The other one I'm gonna use is the claw grip.

And this is great for slicing food.

So with these two safe cutting techniques, we're going to slice the onion in half, cut the peppers, slice the fresh ginger, and also chop the garlic.

Let's have a quick look at each food skill in turn, just to see how it's done.

So the pupil is putting the tomato on the chopping board to cut in half.

They pick up the knife, they make a bridge with their thumb and finger over the food and then run the knife through.

And it's a very safe way to cut.

Let just see that again.

Finger and thumb to make a bridge, and then run the knife through.

The other knife skill is the claw grip.

Here the pupil makes a claw with one hand and then uses it as a guide to slice the cucumber into circles.

So again, another safe cutting technique.

Another food skill we're going to be using is peeling, and we're gonna be peeling by hand.

So we're gonna be peeling the skin off of the onion as well as the garlic.

And you can put the peelings in a food waste bin or perhaps compost.

So let's just check that you've been listening, shall we? So which cutting technique would you use to cut an onion in half? Is it A, B, or C? Look closely at the photos.

Yes, that's right.

It's C, isn't it? That's showing the bridge hold, a safe cutting technique.

Well done.

Another food skill we're going to use is deseeding, which is a bit like cutting as well, but we've just added this one really to emphasise the need to do it safely, because particularly the chilli can be hot.

So we're going to remove and deseed the pepper and the chilli.

And we need to be careful when handling the chilli, because the seeds can be hot.

And we can use a small spoon to scrape the seeds out of the chilli.

Let's have a look at a quick video to see how this is done.

So the pupil is putting the chilli on the chopping board, using the claw grip to hold it, and then to slice off the top of the chilli.

She's then putting that in her food waste bowl.

Then she's gonna use the bridge hold to cut the chilli in half.

She's then using a teaspoon to scrape the seeds out of the chilli into the food waste bowl.

Also, to make the Jollof rice, we're going to be blending, and you might do it one of two ways.

You might use a hand blender, where the blender goes straight into the saucepan, or perhaps an upright blender, sometimes called a jug blender.

And you ladle the Jollof rice mixture into the blender and switch it on.

Let's have a look at a blender in action.

So the student here is carefully ladling their mixture into the blender.

The blender is switched off at the moment at the wall.

They then put the lid on.

And in the meantime, they have then turned on the blender at the wall.

They then secure the lid, put a tee towel on top, and then do short blasts of the blender to make it lovely and smooth to puree the mixture.

So we need to be really careful when using a blender, 'cause the blades are incredibly sharp.

So that's why it's important to make sure it's switched off at the wall when you're not using it.

And the sauce that we're going to make is pureed from different types of vegetables.

Other food skills we're gonna use is we're gonna be using the hob today.

And we're going to use that, and we're gonna control the heat very carefully.

So from a rapid boil down to a low simmer.

So we use the controls to turn this to control the heat, heat control.

And we need to make sure we keep that saucepan handles to the side to prevent accidents.

You can see the saucepan in the photo here with its handle move to the side.

And as we mentioned earlier, a lid is put on the saucepan when we're cooking the Jollof rice.

And this keeps the heat in and it helps the rice cook.

This is where the rice absorbs the water and it swells.

So a quick check for you here.

So when finishing blending, you should A, B, or C? That's right, you should unplug the blender at the wall.

Well done for getting that one right.

So what I want you to do now is I want you to make your Jollof rice.

So there's a few things I want you to do before you do that.

So before you cook, I want to make sure you're ready to cook.

So you need to tie up any long hair, remove any jumpers, wash your hands, and put on a clean apron too.

I also want to make sure you've got your ingredients and your equipment ready.

And as you are preparing and cooking, I want you to think about being safe and hygienic, particularly when you are using the blender, as well as the hob.

Also, I want you to think about your food skills that you're using.

So the measuring, the cutting, the deseeding, using the blender and the hob.

And you need to make sure you do that safely.

And also I want you to observe the rice cooking, the absorbing, to look at the rice cooking.

So here's the ingredients and the equipment you need to make your Jollof rice.

You might wanna pause the video now while you get these ready.

The Jollof rice recipe is in two parts.

Here's the first part here, and then here's the second part.

So I want you to work safely, pause the video, and come back when you finished cooking your delicious Jollof rice.

Good luck.

Okay, so how did you get on? Did you make your Jollof rice well? I bet you did.

I bet you focused on using your food skills, so you were precise and accurate too, as well as safe.

So to make your Jollof rice, the first thing you would've done is to prepare your vegetables as well as your other seasonings, like the garlic and chilli, as well as the tomatoes.

You would've then blended these together to make a sauce.

Then you would've heated some oil in a pan and then cooked the sauce for about five minutes.

The next steps would be adding the different spices, so the paprika, the thyme, the curry powder, and the bay leaf.

Then you would've crumbled in the stock cube, then you would've added in the rice and the water, then brought everything to a boil, and let simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes.

And that's how you make delicious Jollof rice.

Now, I mentioned that we are going to evaluate our rice as well, and we're gonna to use a preference test to evaluate.

And this really finds out whether people like or dislike a dish, to find out their preference.

So preference tests are not aimed to evaluate a characteristic, so for example, crunchiness or smoothness.

It's just to find out likes and dislikes.

And the hedonic scale, which we're going to use, is a type of preference test.

And it asks the tasters to rate a dish from dislike very much to like very much.

And therefore you can find out which one people prefer.

We can then also then put the dishes in order of preference.

So who comes first, second, and third, for example.

So what I want you to do now is to taste and evaluate three different Jollof rice dishes that have been made in your class today.

Remember to be hygienic when you're tasting, and I want you to rate them from the dislike very much to like very much, and also putting your comments of why you've given it that rating.

Good luck.

Pause the video, and we'll come back and look at an example soon.

Okay, so how did you get on? Let's have a look at an example together, shall we? So here's the first part of this example.

And you can see here the first dish, number one, was liked very much.

So that's the most popular one, isn't it? And the second dish, well that was kind of in the middle, neither like or dislike.

And then the third dish got a like.

So in order of preference it would've been number one, number three, and then number two.

So why did they give them that rating? Let's look at their comments.

So you can see here, number one, they really liked the taste, the spicy flavour, and the rice was perfectly cooked.

And that was the one that had the highest preference.

How about number two? Well, the rice was a little bit hard, so it needs to be cooked longer, which is fair enough, and it lacked flavour, so they need to add a bit more spice next time.

So that's why that was the bottom one, wasn't it? And then the third one, it looked good and tasty, but could add a bit more kick, but the rice was well cooked.

So that one was kind of in the middle.

So that's a preference test using the hedonic scale.

Well done.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed making Jollof rice, and we've learned so much today as well, haven't we? And we've learned that the Jollof rice is a popular dish originating from West Africa, and that when we cook rice, the rice grains absorb water and swell, the starch inside swells and become soft to eat.

We've also learned there are many rice dishes in different cuisines and countries from around the world.

And we've used and demonstrated a number of different food skills to make the Jollof rice.

So for example, we've had measuring, peeling, deseeding, cutting, blending, and using the hob safely.

And lastly that we've done a preference test, and preference tests help us find out which dishes people like or dislike.

And sometimes we get their comments too.

So hope you've enjoyed making Jollof rice and hope you make it again very soon.

Perhaps you could add a few more different vegetables, or perhaps fish or meat too.

And perhaps different side dishes.

So thanks ever so much for joining me, and hope you come back for another cooking and nutrition lesson very soon.

Bye.