Nigerian Pepper Guide: Tatashe, Ata Rodo and Cameroon Pepper

Nigerian food has a reputation for heat, which is half the story and the less interesting half.

Almost every red Nigerian dish uses three different peppers doing three different jobs. Get the balance right and you have depth, colour and heat. Use only the hot one and you have fire and disappointment.

The three peppers

Tatashe, the sweet red one

Tatashe is a red bell pepper. Mild, sweet and used for one reason: colour and body.

This is what makes jollof deep red rather than orange, and what gives stew its thickness. It is also the one people leave out, usually because they do not know it exists.

Fresh tatashe is hard to find in America — supermarket bell peppers are a different variety and thinner in flavour. Dried tatashe solves it and keeps for months.

Ata rodo, the hot one

Scotch bonnet or habanero. Fruity, floral and seriously hot. This is where heat comes from.

Fresh is best where you can get it. Where you cannot, ground Cameroon pepper is dried scotch bonnet and does the same job. Nigerians call it Cameroon pepper regardless of where it grew.

It is not paprika and it is not cayenne. Scotch bonnet has actual fruit behind the heat, which is why nothing substitutes for it.

Ata gigun, the long red one

Long red cayenne-type chilli. Middling heat, deep colour, and it bridges the other two. Often blended in with the tatashe.

The ratio that actually works

For a family pot of stew or jollof, roughly:

• 4 to 6 tatashe for colour and body
• 2 to 4 long red chillies
• 1 to 3 scotch bonnet, depending on who is eating
• 1 large onion

Blend, then boil the mixture down before it goes anywhere near oil. A wet pepper base is the reason stew tastes raw and jollof goes soggy.

Cooking for people who did not grow up with it

Start with a quarter of the scotch bonnet you would normally use and keep all the tatashe. You lose almost none of the flavour and all of the fire.

Put ground Cameroon pepper on the table so people can add their own. More sensible than making two pots.

Storing dried peppers

Airtight, away from light. Colour and heat both fade with exposure, and faded pepper is why old stew looks brown.

Ground peppers fade faster than whole. Buy the size you will actually get through.

What else the heat goes into

Beyond stew and jollof: suya spice, pepper soup, abacha, ofada sauce, and a small bowl of ground pepper and salt for dipping boiled yam.

We ship dried tatashe and Cameroon pepper anywhere in the United States, in sizes from a small jar to a 3lb catering bag.