The first time I cooked jollof rice with tatashe peppers, I had finally completed making the first series of life in stills; an ongoing series of still life artworks about Nigerian food in raw form. I began working on the series in January and after many iterations was satisfied with five final images shot during sunset in June. In my quest of beautiful compositions, I had to be selective of the ingredients included in each image so when shopping for the ingredients I’d pick the produce that looked the best. Part of sourcing the ingredients, keeping in mind how they would be composed, included looking up recipes for the dishes I wanted to shoot. Sometimes this research happened in unexpected ways, like the day my mum returned from church with a container of jollof her friend had made. This jollof was the tastiest party jollof I had eaten in a long time. It was a deep red, smoky, spicy and sweet, with just the right amount of oil for lubrication. “This is so good”, I repeatedly said to my mum as I devoured the jollof. “Margaret said she uses tatashe peppers”, my mum relayed to me as if Magaret had told her the secret ingredient that made her jollof so enjoyable.
Tatashe peppers are commonly used in Nigerian jollof, especially when making party jollof, however sometimes we take shortcuts when it comes to cooking that soon become habits because it’s convenient and still produces a similar result. This was my first time hearing about tatashe peppers and their use in making stew and jollof rice. I couldn’t recall my mum cooking with them or talking about them. With three kids close in age to feed, there were some compromises she had to make when it came to cooking. I wanted to know more about tatashe peppers and promptly went about doing my googles. I loved the shape and colour of tatashe peppers and knew I wanted to include them in the images of “Stew” and “Yam porridge” I was making.
The next time I went into my studio, I walked to the grocery shops on Bethnal Green highstreet to get the ingredients to shoot. I found tatashe peppers, tomatoes and yam, took them back to my studio and got to work. The tatashe peppers completely transformed the compositions for “Stew” and “Yam porridge”. The elongated and uneven shape of tatashe peppers made the arrangements more complex and beautiful compared to bell peppers which I had been shooting with before. I strive to not waste food by cooking with the ingredients I buy for my still life images. When I got home, I bounded straight to the kitchen, much to the surprise of my mother as lately I cook once in a blue moon. I am not exaggerating when I say I was ecstatic at the possibility of being able to recreate the amazing jollof rice my mum had brought home with my newfound knowledge of tatashe peppers. As I began preparations for what I was sure was going to be the best jollof I was going to have made to date, my mum kept me company and watched with bemused anticipation.
First I chopped fresh tomatoes, tatashe peppers and a scotch bonnet into large chunks and seasoned them with pink himalayan salt, black pepper, thyme and mixed herbs. These went into the oven on a foil lined baking tray on gas mark 5 for 20 minutes. A recipe online said doing this would give the jollof a smoky flavour; my mum disagreed about the necessity of this step but I wanted to try something new. I washed some rice and put a tin of tomatoes, an onion and a clove of garlic into the blender ready to blend with the ingredients in the oven. As the alluring smell of the roasting ingredients in the oven filled the kitchen, my mum and I discussed the different ways stew and jollof can be prepared. PING!!! The oven timer went off. I blended the ingredients together, put them in a pot with vegetable oil, palm oil and added more seasoning. After 20 minutes I stirred in the rice. Another 10 minutes and the jollof was ready. It was delicious for my first time cooking it using a new ingredient. My mum tasted it and said it was nice, although we both agreed it didn’t taste the same as the jollof that had inspired it, but it was a joyful attempt nonetheless.
