The Flygerians Cookbook | Jess and Jo Edun

Suzy Chase:                   When two podcasts collide, magic happens. Welcome to Dinner Party, the podcast where I bring together my two hit shows, cookery by the book and decorating by the book around here. We're all about cooking, sharing stories behind recipes, and creating a cozy home. I'm your host, Suzy Chase, a West Village wife, mom and home cook. Inspired by Martha Stewart trying to live in a Nora Ephron movie, surrounded by toile, plaid, cookbooks, decorating books and magazines, cooking in my galley kitchen and living my best life in my darling New York City apartment in the cutest neighborhood in the city, the West Village. So come hang out and let's get into the show. Yes,

Jess & Jo Edun:             I'm Jo. and I’m Jess. We are The Flygerians two sisters bringing the sweet taste of Nigeria to the world.

Suzy Chase:                   Nigeria has their own food culture, rich in flavors, agriculture, spices, native to the land, an undeniable passion. In the cookbook you write, we are the Nigerians to larger than life sisters, best friends and Nigerian restaurant owners. So could you explain the term Nigerians and how it's more than just your name?

Jess & Jo Edun:             So The Flygerians is a colloquial term, which basically you to define any Nigerian that is fly, that's got big, bold energy in Nigerian before you even tell you that they're Nigerian. So that's what makes them that fly, that charismatic. Exactly.

Jess & Jo Edun:             You hear us before you see us, and we're all about bringing beautiful energy and showing people our culture showcasing the best that Nigeria has to offer. And the Nigerian symbol is an eagle, our national animal. So add the fly from an eagle and Nigerian together, you get a fly jn, which is us

Suzy Chase:                   With high heels,

Jess & Jo Edun:             With high heels and big hearts

Suzy Chase:                   With the heels and the hearts

Jess & Jo Edun:             Always glam, always glam. And bringing that bold energy. Literally when you meet in Nigerian, they're always wanting to fly high. And that's what also the concert is everyone's ambitious, everyone's driven, everybody wants to do some sort of business or something like that. And that flyn energy, it's just a colloquial flyn. If you meet any Nigerian, they always fly. So globally, always.

Suzy Chase:                   So, your Londoners inspired by your Nigerian roots sharing food is sharing love. You learn to cook in your grandma's kitchen in Hackney East London. And then in the summers you would get up at 4:00 AM to tag along with your grandma who you called mama to the Dalston market to get the best produce. So talk about how that moment and time shaped your future as chefs.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yes, our grandma was everything to us. She was the pillar of her community, but also the pillar of our family. She was all about feeding everyone no matter your race, your gender, sexual creed, she wanted to make sure that you were fed and taught us that life should have no boundaries, nor should food. Everybody should have good, affordable, accessible food and it should be great and rich in flavor. And that's something that we've taken with us to formate a business when she passed away to keep her legacy alive, but also to show the world just how great our culture is and how rich our food is and how taste tantalizing the flavors are. Exactly

Jess & Jo Edun:             Like they say the early bird catches the worms. If you wake up early in the morning, you get the freshest, the best produce when the delivery comes straight from the farms, run the butchery. If you get the early enough, you get the freshest, the nicest of the bits that cuts some meats. Also, they haven't really sold much yet. So you can always barter a good price,

Jess & Jo Edun:             Which is always a great thing.

Jess & Jo Edun:             If not mid-day when they've made lots of money. You can always start early, get the barter in before they get tired and worn down. But it's always a bit about just being present, supporting local community, local food. And it's similar to ethos that we kind of follow. We source all of our ingredients locally from Packham and we just try to give back to the community and just keep things circulating.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yeah, exactly. And that's why we choose to teach as well because I think like Jo said, it's all about community. No woman is an island and without your community you are nothing. And it's your community and your people that work for you in your business, that build a brand, that build your business. And that's how we've got so far to this day for us. We owe it all back to everyone that's contributed and supported us. But also it's all about enriching your environment you are in and that's what we believe in.

Suzy Chase:                   Your slogan is chop life before life chops you. What does that mean?

Jess & Jo Edun:             That means you need to enjoy life before it ends. You need to live every moment unapologetically yourself and you, but have fun. You work hard,

Jess & Jo Edun:             But you play harder. And also to follow your dreams and never ever let your dreams fall by the wayside. I mean, what kind of life would you live if you didn't follow what you were passionate about, what you loved, what you enjoyed doing? And there's nothing worse than going through life and not having fulfilled to yourself. You owe it to yourself. We believe to be the best version of you and to make sure that you believe your stamp on this life and a positive feeling in all those lives that you enrich and you see each day. So for us it's all about seizing the moment, being your best self and following a living life to the fullest.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Exactly. If you get caught up in so many nine to fives or day jobs or working double things and we believe that anything you do, you must have fun in it. If you're not having fun and you're not enjoying yourself and you're not being yourself as being unapologetically you, then all of these things start to weigh on you. So the mission is the aim is just to chop life, enjoy life before life takes you because stress, worry, anger, it weighs down and it brings you down. So you must enjoy it before it ends you. Yes. So chop life before life chops you.

Suzy Chase:                   Your cuisine is mostly of the Edo tribe, is that right?

Jess & Jo Edun:             The cooking style and the culinary style of cooking, our dishes derives the Edo tribe. But some of the dishes like are, they're cooked across all the tribes in Nigeria, but different sort of tribes cook things in different ways. Some add more bitter leaves, some add spinach. And yes, our recipes are derived from the eddo style of cooking, but we are dual tribes, so we are part yuba as well as eddo as well. So most of the things are inspired for both of the culinary culture across Nigeria.

Suzy Chase:                   Wait, what's the other tribe? Yuba.

Jess & Jo Edun:             The Yoruba tribe, which is a quite prominent big tribe. You'll find them a lot in the UK and a lot I'm sure in New York as well. It's a massive tribe that's beautiful in terms of their outfits, what they wear, the food. But again, I think Nigeria, one thing about us is that we've now, despite having different tribe, we've kind of merged into one big tribe to represent each other. And that's why you can find all our dishes shared across different Nigerian diasporas all over Nigeria as well as in places like New York, like London, we all kind of merge and eat the best of the best. Our culture has to offer.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Everyone kind of integrates different cooking styles and the recipes from different tribe that we kind of predominantly most eat the same things. But there are Pacific dishes that are unique to eat tribe, which they do best or allegedly do best are

Jess & Jo Edun:             The Nigerians do it better.

Suzy Chase:                   So speaking of The Flygerians doing it better, you have the Ogbono soup, is that how you pronounce it?

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yes. Yeah, Ogbono it's derived from mango seeds. So African mangoes, big mango seeds that are literally dried, blended up and it kind of creates this draw effect. So it's quite slimy and it's got assorted meat, so it's got tripe, which is we call shaki. It's got cow foot, it's got goat meat in it and it's got fish. So what you will kind realize about Nigerian food and culture is we do this sort of surf and turf sort of mixture of things. So the spice is like, it is quite unique in tasting because you've got a meat taste of things, but you also got a fish and a crustacean taste of it. So it's like a one part of loveness that it's one part of enjoyment. Everything is kind of cooked and blended into one and emerged

Jess & Jo Edun:             And makes it perfection. I think you can't go through having a bit of it without tasting everything called at once and it gives you a beautiful party in your mouth sensation that you'll never forget

Jess & Jo Edun:             Sometimes if you can't decide if you want to eat fish and meat, why not just eat both? The dish just offers everything into one. It embodies the taste of every single thing you wanted to eat.

Jess & Jo Edun:             It's especially eating with things like pounded jam or things like eba, which is more like a hard swallow. It's more of a staple like maize kind of vibe that's beaten with a big wooden spoon. So it's a smooth texture and you can kind of use that you eat with your hands and it's all about connecting with your family. For us, our earliest memory is sitting around the table sharing a massive pot of pounded jam and samo stew and breaking bread, enjoying life, speaking about all day food is a big way of connecting our people to each other. So that's one of the best and biggest memories that we hold

Suzy Chase:                   Now in the cookbook, you talk about a swallow, what exactly is that, a side dish?

Jess & Jo Edun:             So yes, so swallow food is basically, it's like a dried yam or dried cassava and just was just describing it is kind of pounded with a spoon or pounded or there's new different ways of styles of cooking it. And it's like, I hate to say it, some people might come for me, but it's like a mashed potato. If I want to explain it to, in layman's terms, it's like a starchy thick mashed potato that you used to eat with your hands and dip it in the reason why it's called swallow because you literally just swallow it, you dip and then you swallow. You can't chew obviously, but you just need to just swallow. And that's how it's traditionally eaten.

Jess & Jo Edun:             And I think that's one big thing about me and Jo is that we want to educate people about our foods and our culture and bring similarities that people can kind of understand and connect to. I think that's the best way to educate people about any culture or about any food, but it is a taste like no other. But again, like Jo said, it does have quite similarities if you wanted to describe it in layman terms, to a mashed dried potato, which is kind of used to scoop up that beautiful source that will give you that beautiful sensation of enjoyment

Suzy Chase:                   Back to the soup. So it calls for two to three scotch bonnets. I noticed. Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about because on the first page, I think it's the contents page, you have a huge bowl of scotch bonnets and so would you say Nigerian food is spicy?

Jess & Jo Edun:             I don't think so. I would say it's a slow building. I think as a Nigeria we would probably say no, but I think for anyone coming into the food, and it depends on what dish you're eating. If you're having something like jollof rice, the scotch bonnets, there's a lot in there, but it's slow cooked and because it's slow cooked, it kind of takes away the spice and introduces a sweetness into the dish. And because it's paired with garlic and onions and a big mixture of seasonings like curry powder, paprika and thyme, it kind of balances out perfectly to give you a hint of a spice, but a sweetness. And I think that's quite similar with most of our shoes. It just depends on the cooking method and how it's cooked. So you can see things that say maybe like four scotch bonnets, five scotch bonnets, but you can also water it down to your own taste. But for us we do like it packed to heat, but then once it's cooked for a long period of time, it does balance and slow cook it out.

Jess & Jo Edun:             I would say sometimes there could be disparities between tribes, like the Yuba tribe are really known for making spicy food. So for spicy the stews are spicy. So yeah, it really varies on what tribe, on who's kind of cooking for you. But we like a good balance sheet because like we say, food for everybody and if it's too spicy, not everybody can eat it. So we need to make it at a level heat that everyone can eat. And if you want more spice, there's options to add more into it.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Exactly. That's what we always say, we do it the way.

Suzy Chase:                   So your grandfather was with the Yoruba tribe and they make the Yoruba stew. Is it called? I?

Jess & Jo Edun:             You're Nigerian before you know it, before you leave this podcast, you'll be one of us. We have new your citizenship

Suzy Chase:                   And so it's called Designer Stew and in the headnote you say this recipe calls for stamina.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yes. So yeah, it's called a designer stew because originally it was something that was cooked on special occasions. And the cooking of style of I she is that you need to, before they actually created the bleach store, you need to bleach and burn the oil. So you need to imagine having your house having burning, smoking hot oil in your property. And that's exactly what you do. Say it requires you to burn the oil first and then you have to then do the blending and the spices. So it takes a very long time. So it is stamina in the cooking process but also stamina to eat it. The level of spice and pepper that goes into that shoe, you need stamina to make sure you can enjoy it.

Suzy Chase:                   Speaking of scotch bonnets!

Jess & Jo Edun:             I'm telling you there's a lot, and originally it was created actually by a lady called Felicia Adesina. There's a great documentary on her. She was born in 1921 and she created the dish for her husband and to put her kids through school and the documentaries by her great granddaughter as well. So it's an absolute sensation documentary to watch. And then she created the bleach oil, made it accessible to all. So like Jo said, originally it was only selected for creative parties and dos, and now you can find it cooked in most kitchens weekly. And that's why we include it in our book to show people that it can be done and it's a great beautiful dish with a bite of meat with every single bit that you eat. So every taste, because they cut into small cubes. Every spoonful that you eat has a beautiful sensation of meat and flavor and spices and seasonings. It's beautiful.

Suzy Chase:                   And it also has shrimp and sliced eggs on it too, which I thought was interesting.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yeah, everything Nigerians do things in abundance never buy halves. That's one thing about our culture,

Jess & Jo Edun:             Like we said, most of the smaller dishes has got the surf and turf, you've got the offal, you've got the meats, and then you've also got the crayfish and then all types of blends of meats, stuff like that in it.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yeah, and I think one of the things that was really important to us when creating this book was to show the traditional amazing dishes, but also to create our own. Because like we've said, our food should hold no boundaries. So if you are a meat eater, we've got you. If you want dishes just for pescatarians, we've got you covered vegans, don't worry about it, it's all in the book. We've got you covered. So for us it's all about sharing food in abundance, but also making sure that every single person at your table has something beautiful to eat, which is why the book is full of sensational dishes.

Suzy Chase:                   So speaking of beautiful things to eat, every culture has some fried dough and in Nigeria it's the puff puff. Nigerian donuts are sold by street fenders and stalls or people carrying them in snack bags. I'm curious about your grandma's puff puffs.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Oh, they were the best. Yes. Our grandma's puff were always so light, they were so crispy as well way, I don't know, even now we replicated, but still our hands were always sweeter. But they are like a dense donut and the people always question why are they so dense? But that's the style of the eating of it. You can add cinnamon and you can add a bit of nutmeg in it. It's got sugar in it and they're just fried everywhere. There's no matter where you go in Nigeria, in the markets, even sitting in the passport office, someone will walk around and bring you puff puff and it's like a thick bench donut that it's just taste tantalizing.

Jess & Jo Edun:             And I think it's one of those things that you could have. I mean, weddings, birthdays, every social gathering, even if just going around to Nigerian's house, putting on puff puff is definitely a staple that we all enjoy having and making for guests. And like Jo said, it's it a beautiful, it's what we, because don't really have as many desserts, which is why we created our own desserts, Nigerian desserts in the book. But puff puff is something that could be eaten as a starter, as a dessert, anywhere you want it as a little snack throughout your day. It is so universal and it's such a beautiful dish that captures I think the essence and beauty and sweetness of our culture.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Definitely, I would say yeah, because we put it in our book at the dessert section, but it's also known as a small chop and small chops are like small bites or what others will refer to as a snack. But yeah, we've kind of added a bit more cinnamon and nut bread to give it that more dessert feel.

Suzy Chase:                   So entertaining the Nigerian way when serving food, it should be accompanied by a drink. So let's chat about the Chapman and what's the background of this drink and I want to hear about your version.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yes. So Chapman was actually created for a British man, can you believe it? In Nigerian at a bar called Mr. Chaps. And it's a welcome drink essentially. It was a non-alcoholic welcome drink that was introduced to people with fresh fruit. So it's got your oranges, your lemons, and it's kind of blended perfectly together and Grenadine as well. But ours, I think ours has a really unique taste to it because we've kind of revamped it and made it again at flagger and twist because we believe in not just having the traditional stuff but elevating our food and elevating our culture, taking it to new heights with better ingredients.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yeah, it is literally a welcome drink, but we love it with a bit of alcohol. Always take the edge of the day. Literally anyone can drink it. It is got bitters in it as well and it's quite refreshing. It's something like that. It's kind of welcomed at any party. But yeah, it could be made in different styles and ways. Some people use Fanta, so some people use a mixture of Sprite and then a Nigerian Fanta, then they put a bit of bitters and they put a bit of cucumbers as well.

Jess & Jo Edun:             But our style is definitely our alcohol. Get the vodka out or get the rum out and mix it in and give your party and shake up it needs and deserves.

Suzy Chase:                   You say if there's no Jollof, don't invite us.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Oh yeah.

Suzy Chase:                   Would say that's the number one Nigerian staple?

Jess & Jo Edun:             It is. If you're going to cook for Nigerian people and you want to make a Nigerian cuisine, you got to have Jollof at every party. To be honest.

Jess & Jo Edun:             It's a national dish. We will bring it ourselves to be honest, and I'm laughing you because we always have a chuckle about that first section of the book about Nigerian mannerisms and how to entertain a Nigerian and there's so many funny things. We wouldn't go to invite us to your house without having food. Having food and having something there to offer us when we come over is key. And not having, if you're going to serve food, having a drink, there's all these cultural mannerisms. We would never say, oh, or be offended, but just know that we'll never come back or next time we'll bring the food with us. If you invite us your house with no food, no ju off or you don't offer us a drink, we'll bring the drink next time when we come. Exactly.

                                    Jollof rice is our national dish, and I think the beauty of it is that slight smoky taste and especially when you have it as a party Jollof and ours in the book, the Flygerian version of the Jollof, it's our nan's recipe and it's cooked to perfection. So we'll definitely recommend that making that when you have Nigerians or any guest, they'll be talking about it for weeks and months and years to come.

Suzy Chase:                   Okay. How many scotch bonnets are in that?

Jess & Jo Edun:             It depends how big you want. It depends your, it doesn't matter. It depends. I would go for about four or five just for about one kgs worth of rice. That's just myself. But remember the one kg worth of rice? I put about four or five scotch bullets in it, to be honest. But you could just put one or two. It depends on what your palette is like.

                                    Remember Suzy, it slow cooks. It slow cooks for about three to four hours. So that spicy flavor to a degree does go down and it gets that rich sweetness as well with a hint of spice. So sometimes you might taste it when you first originally make it and think, oh, this is quite hot. Let it cook down. Once you add the rice in, you'll see that it's not as hot as you thought, and you might even want to add a bit more.

Jess & Jo Edun:             If you're really screaming, it's just go for one scotch bonnet with one kg worth of rice maybe. Yeah. And then ramp up. It's cold and flu season you need to sweat and burn out the viruses. It's the remedy. It's the remedy to get rid of viruses. You watch out. There's a lack of research in it, but you'll find out soon.

Suzy Chase:                   We heard it here first!

Jess & Jo Edun:             Exactly. We'll put doctors out of business.

Suzy Chase:                   So at your restaurant in Peckham in Southeast London.

Jess & Jo Edun:             That's right.

Suzy Chase:                   It's called The Flygerians. And you're reinventing British classics and the highlighting similarities. Could you describe your fish and chips recipe? The Nigerian way, I'm so curious about this.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Chips is, oh my god, it knocks the British fish and chips out the park, if we may say so ourselves. I mean, like we said, we wanted to make sure that we could connect with other cultures, but also it's a dish that we eat anyway in Nigeria, and it's one of those things where it has it's cassava, so it's boiled, so it's quite soft in the middle, and then we fry it so it's nice and crispy on the outside it imagine a triple cooked chip that is what it's like, but it's more rich in flavor. It absorbs the salt a lot better. And we do that of our red bream fish as well. And then we make our sauteed veg, which is peppers and onions and garlic that kind of goes on top of that nice, crispy, crunchy fish that's also quite soft in the middle as well. And rich with flavor.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Exactly like we said, we're all about trying to educate people about our culture and introduce the similarities and how we can just experience it. So I think when we call it Nigerian fish and chips, it's just a way to connect to British fish and chips. This is one of our staple dishes here, and it just shows that we do eat similar things, but some of the ingredients are different and it's just a fun way that puts a spin of introduce people to the Nigerian culture. So yeah.

Suzy Chase:                   What would you say is the most popular dish at your restaurant?

Jess & Jo Edun:             Two Fly Chicks, which is named after us. It's two pieces of chicken marinated in mama's forbidden sauce. We can't tell you what's in there unless you've got an ine. We'll tell you what can't eat. But it's a sweet and sticky sauce that is kind of added in the green that we weren't allowed to have when we were younger, which covers our chicken. And then it's served with our smoky jollof and plantain of hot sauce at the side. So yeah, it is sweet, smoky and spicy and hot and sweet at the same time like us, depending on what day you catches. Exactly the perfect combo.

Suzy Chase:                   Why weren't you allowed to have it when you were younger?

Jess & Jo Edun:             If we tell you Suz, we have to kill you! Can't tell you. But it definitely was one of our nan's favorite ingredients and it was definitely, that's all we can say, actually, that's all I can say. Come try it. I'm going to try it. Come try and try. Guess it's quite a unique taste. It's really sweet, but it's also got a rich undertone of that secret ingredient that we use.

Suzy Chase:                   So it's not in the cookbook.

Jess & Jo Edun:             No, no, no. We've got to keep that one to ourselves. Dragons den then we're coming for you.

Suzy Chase:                   So now for my segment called The Perfect Bite, where I ask you to describe your perfect bite of a favorite dish.

Jess & Jo Edun:             It has to be suya, which is one of the leading Nigerian street foods. And the suya itself is actually the spice. It can be beef, it can be lamb, it can be chicken. But the main thing about soya is the season that comes from the north. It's like a smoked paprika, garlicy and stock rich of seasoning powder that goes on top of the meat. And it's so with onions and it's served with tomatoes. It gives that freshness with that beautiful texture of the meat. Mostly I will break your teeth, but not The Flygerians suya. Ours is for hours to give it a nice soft, succulent juicy flavor with plenty of season. We're never shy with those. We put season into our ancestors whisper. That's enough. And then we kind of cook that over charcoal and then we add our onions and tomatoes, which gives it that beautiful richness as well.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Unfortunately, if you have a peanut allergy, you definitely can't eat it because it's peanut based and yeah, it's actually one of the best things in Nigeria. Well, my bite to eat. Oh yeah. What My bite to eat will be our chin' offee pie, which can be found in the books I love to, chin chin is like a Nigerian biscuit. I'm not sure what the most popular biscuit is in America, but it's like a better digestive. Do you eat digestive biscuits in America? Which do you have biscuits? What biscuits do you eat?

                                    What biscuits in America?

Suzy Chase:                   Are those hard? Are they like crackers? Oh, I have no idea.

Jess & Jo Edun:             It's like a fried dough. They're like biscuits. They're fried and then we kind of blend it and crush it down. Some people do make him really crunchy. I'm trying to figure out, imagine a toffee that wasn't toffee that was, I don't know, like a heart. I don't know how to describe it in a way.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Yeah, I would say a digestive biscuit. Your favorite? Sweeter. I dunno if you eat digestives in America. No, no. What do you guys snack on?

Jess & Jo Edun:             it's like a cookie that is then crumbled down and it's just like a banoffee pie. Do you have banoffee pies in America?

Suzy Chase:                   No. No.

Jess & Jo Edun:             It's a British dessert as well. As a cheesecake there with cream on top. Oh, that sounds good. Not baked, but it is. So it's kind of derived from a Nigerian biscuit that we eat. Chin' offee pie. And we put in caramel and then you put bananas and you put whipped cream and we kind sprinkle a bit of milo on it, which some people call Milo, which is a nice hot chocolate that you go on top. So that's one of my bite to eat sometimes. I never used to be a sweet tooth until I started making my own desserts. So we started making our own desserts. I love sweet things, but I'm biased. I love sweet things that we make and we make them great. So if you want to make it too by the book!

Suzy Chase:                   So where can we find you on the web, social media, and in London?

Jess & Jo Edun:             You can find us at The Flygerians on Instagram. We also have our own website, theflygerians.com. And we also, you can find us in Peckham Palms, a black female-led space in the heart of Peckham, given great opportunities to women entrepreneurs. And that's based in Peckham also on X? Is that what they call it now? The old Twitter, the X? Yeah. Who knows? Yeah, who knows what's going on. The old Twitter.

Suzy Chase:                   Yeah.

Jess & Jo Edun:             On TikTok, LinkedIn, we're on all social media platforms. We just don't have the old school MySpace anymore like they used to use. Yeah. But the best place to find us, Instagram, check us out on Instagram. There's lots of great content on there. Can see us cooking our beautiful dishes as well as being transported to the restaurant and Nigeria without needing to get on a plane.

Suzy Chase:                   Well this has been the best. Thank you so much Jess and Jo for coming on Dinner Party Podcast.

Jess & Jo Edun:             Thank you, Suzy. No worries, Suzy. Thanks for having us. Thank you.

Suzy Chase:                   Okay, so where can you listen to the new Dinner Party podcast series? Well, it's on Substack SuzyChase.substack.com. You can also subscribe to Dinner Party for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Additionally, the episodes will be available on both Decorating by the Book and Cookery by the Book. Long story short, you'll be able to listen to it virtually everywhere. Thanks for listening. Bye.