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Thieboudienne
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- Total Time
- 2 hours
- Prep Time
- 30 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1¾ to 2 pounds firm white fish, such as red snapper or striped bass, bone-in, skin-on, cut crosswise into 1½- to 1¾-inch steaks
- Coarse kosher salt (such as Morton) and ground black pepper
- 1medium red onion, peeled and quartered
- 1(1-inch) piece fresh ginger, scrubbed
- 6garlic cloves
- 2scallions, trimmed and roughly chopped
- 8 to 10fresh parsley sprigs, roughly chopped
- 5 to 6fresh dill sprigs, roughly chopped
- 1whole lemon
- 8 to 9tablespoons peanut oil or neutral oil, such as grapeseed
- 3large ripe, firm tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1large red bell pepper, roughly chopped
- ¼cup tomato paste
- ½teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼teaspoon ground coriander
- 1tablespoon dawadawa powder (see Tip)
- 3fresh or dried bay leaves
- 3cups vegetable stock
- 2 to 3medium carrots, tops trimmed and scrubbed, 1 medium sweet potato, ¼ piece pumpkin or butternut squash, or 1 medium cassava, cut into 2-inch pieces
- ¼piece small green cabbage, outer leaves removed, sliced along the length into 1-inch thick slices
- 4ounces green okra or green beans, tops trimmed
- 3cups broken rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 to 2red or green Scotch bonnet chiles
Preparation
- Step 1
Pat the fish steaks dry with a paper towel. Use a sharp knife to cut ½-inch deep slits into the skin side of the fish. Season each piece lightly with salt and pepper.
- Step 2
Make the marinade: Add ¼ of the onion, the ginger and 3 garlic cloves to a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the scallions, parsley and dill, and pulse until mixture is a coarse paste. Transfer the paste to a large bowl and zest the lemon directly into it. Stir in 2 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. (Alternatively, finely chop the onion, ginger, garlic, scallions, parsley and dill into a coarse paste by hand. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the lemon zest, oil, salt and pepper.)
- Step 3
Rub the marinade all over and into the fish, including into any cavities. Set aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients, or, if cooking later, refrigerate until ready to use.
- Step 4
Rinse out the food processor and add ½ the onion, remaining 3 garlic cloves, tomatoes and red bell pepper. Pulse until chopped into a coarse purée.
- Step 5
In a medium nonstick skillet, heat a tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Working in 2 batches if necessary, wipe off any excess marinade, place the fish pieces in the skillet and sear each side until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Drizzle in another tablespoon of oil if working in batches or as needed.
- Step 6
Use a knife to thinly slice the remaining ¼ piece of onion. In a large, lidded Dutch oven or a large, wide skillet, heat the remaining 4 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently until just softened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, scraping down the sides and bottom as it cooks to prevent it from sticking, until deepened in color, 4 minutes. Add the spices, dawadawa powder and bay leaves, and stir.
- Step 7
Add the red pepper purée and stir to combine with the tomato paste. Bring up to a simmer, cover and continue to cook on medium-low, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens slightly and the oil begins to rise to the surface, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Step 8
Stir in the vegetable stock, increase heat to medium-high, cover and bring up to high to a rolling boil. Season with salt to taste.
- Step 9
Cook the vegetables until tender enough to just pierce with a fork: Drop in the hardiest vegetables with the longest cooking times in the boiling liquid first. Carrots, squash, potatoes and cassava will take about 12 to 15 minutes. Tender vegetables with shorter cooking times can go in later. Cabbage will take about 10 minutes, and okra and green beans will take 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to a baking sheet or large plate as they cook.
- Step 10
Once all of the vegetables have been cooked and moved to a plate, gently drop the fish into the broth. Lower the heat to medium-low and allow the fish to simmer until just barely cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to the plate or the baking sheet. Add the rice and whole chiles, stir to coat the grains and cover the skillet with the lid. Cook until the rice is just tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 to 17 minutes. The rice may scorch on the bottom of the pan, and that’s OK. Return the fish and vegetables to the skillet, arrange directly over the top of the rice and pour in any liquid on the baking sheet or plate. Cover and allow to continue cooking until the rice is softened, vegetables are warmed and fish is cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes.
- Step 11
To serve, remove the whole chiles or leave in depending on taste. Move the pot to the table and spoon out portions of the rice, fish and vegetables onto individual plates.
- Dawadawa, also known as iru, is a fermented locust bean product frequently used in West African cooking to add deep, robust flavor to soups and stews. It can be found as a ground powder or whole beans in the spice aisles of any African grocer. Possible alternatives are fish sauce or fermented black beans.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I learned cheb from a champ when I lived in Dakar. Steaks in the photo are too narrow. A half cube of crumbled shrimp bouillon goes in the marinade. Dill and cumin-- wrong flavors. Omit green beans. Use pumpkin. Hold the cooked vegetables in a warm oven once they are done. The same with the fish. Then arrange everything on top of the rice to serve. The crispy rice is a delicacy and served in a separate bowl. The hot chiles are removed and available for those who want an extra kick.
If you want to read about how this dish is traditionally made in Senegal, including some history. sociology, and more authentic ingredients, read my NYT piece from 1990. (Note, tieboudienne is the French (colonial) spelling for this dish. The Wolof spelling is ceebu jen). https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/05/travel/fare-of-the-country-senegal-s-spicy-noonday-feast.html
Some cognoscenti Thiebou Jeun add-ons: Beugeudje - a paste of green bissap (hibiscus) leaves. Common in Casamance. A Thiebou Jeun master stroke. Kaani Saddam - a hot pepper named for Saddam Hussein that you simply touch with your spoon, as hot tempered and explosive as it’s namesake. Eggplant - pretty standard inclusion Geudj - dried fish …if you’re at all concerned about authenticity, green beans in thiebou jeune is kinda like pineapple pizza, i.e. a total abomination but perhaps ok?
The ingredient list states "whole fish with skin on" that are then cut into steaks. Also, it is easier to score the skin when the fish is whole. Do that step first,then slice it into steaks.
You can buy broken rice at most decent Asian markets. It’s the smaller (literally broken) rice grains that are separated during processing. It’s used heavily in Vietnamese cooking so if you have an Asian market with any Vietnamese presence you’ll find it.
Fish steaks do not have a skin side so what is meant by cutting deep slits into the skin in the first instruction? This sounds delish!
Re: steaks - think of it as a cross-section of fish. The fish is cleaned and then chopped across its body into steaks - so each steak would have a portion of the backbone, skin on the outside and cut through the bottom where it was cleaned.
Lived in Mauritania and had a Senegalese cook, and I have to be honest--you are not using nearly enough oil! Take a small coke bottle and fill 1 1/2 times with the cheapest cooking oil available! Also you need a Maggi (bouillon) cube or 3, and no dill, cumin, or green beans. Use yellow onions, not scallions or red onions. And the rof should have chili peppers ground up into it too! Eat with your hands, which will smell like cheb the rest of the day! ;)
Quarter piece refers to quite literally cutting a cabbage into four quarters. For whatever reason, it is the custom in west Africa to cut cabbage into quarters or eighths. Then, the patriarch or matriarch at the food bowl distributes slivers of the cooked quarters or eighths to everyone present. In my experience, pumpkin was cut into square chunks, but I was in the Gambia and every country does this a little differently.
I’m confused about the ratio of rice to liquid. 3 cups rice and 3 cups vegetable broth? I ended up adding a lot of water to get the rice tender. I lived in Mali and we ate this occasionally. I agree to not use dill, Maggi cubes would add authenticity, and eggplant would be good. In my Great Lakes town we have a lot fish: salmon, herring, trout, but no good seafood. I used frozen tilapia and my friends loved it.
I loved making this! All of the steps made it a half day exercise for me and it was fun. Sadly the flavors don’t hold up the next day. I was looking forward to taking this into the office for lunch, but when I heated it up, it just didn’t taste as flavorful. Also, this recipe taught me I am not a fan of yucca root.
I found instructions for making my own broken rice on line: I had jasmine rice, so I rinsed it, then whizzed it in my food processor till the grains had broken up a bit. The various instructions I found said that food processors might not be up to the job, but that a blender might turn the uncooked rice to paste, however my 40yo Cuisinart worked just fine. The rice did tend to stick together (as it breaks, it gets starchier) so I stopped and stirred the rice several times. It cooked up well.
I found that once the veggies were all cooked and skimmed off, there was not enough left over liquid to cook the rice. I wound up adding about 3 cups of boiling water.
What is broken rice?
What's "broken rice"?
Is this statement on the ingredients list a “pick one” or is it “choose all”? (The word “or” in two places is confusing me): “2 to 3 medium carrots, tops trimmed and scrubbed, 1 medium sweet potato, ¼ piece pumpkin or butternut squash, or 1 medium cassava, cut into 2-inch pieces”
My husband is not a fish fan. Would this work with chicken too?
Lived in Mauritania and had a Senegalese cook, and I have to be honest--you are not using nearly enough oil! Take a small coke bottle and fill 1 1/2 times with the cheapest cooking oil available! Also you need a Maggi (bouillon) cube or 3, and no dill, cumin, or green beans. Use yellow onions, not scallions or red onions. And the rof should have chili peppers ground up into it too! Eat with your hands, which will smell like cheb the rest of the day! ;)
This looks delicious - but I cannot stand dill. Any suggestions for an herb utterly non-dill-like that would add appropriate flavor to this dish?
Thoughts on tofu, rather than fish (to which I'm allergic)?
Yes. You could also just make a vegetarian version with no protein per se. The fish does add flavor and texture, but the dish is excellent without it.
If you want to read about how this dish is traditionally made in Senegal, including some history. sociology, and more authentic ingredients, read my NYT piece from 1990. (Note, tieboudienne is the French (colonial) spelling for this dish. The Wolof spelling is ceebu jen). https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/05/travel/fare-of-the-country-senegal-s-spicy-noonday-feast.html
What is brown rice?
Loved the flavor combo across the herbal fish marinade + red pepper/tomato sauce. Next time: triple or quadruple the amount of veggies. (Parboil the whole batch in advance, heat some up at each meal?) Cross-cultural mash-up, with apologies: I made fried rice with the leftovers plus some other rice in the fridge. Sauteed some garlic and veggies with fermented black beans, threw in the rice, topped with handfuls of dill, parsley, chives.
Quarter piece refers to quite literally cutting a cabbage into four quarters. For whatever reason, it is the custom in west Africa to cut cabbage into quarters or eighths. Then, the patriarch or matriarch at the food bowl distributes slivers of the cooked quarters or eighths to everyone present. In my experience, pumpkin was cut into square chunks, but I was in the Gambia and every country does this a little differently.
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