Thursday, February 24, 2022

Ethiopian Recipes

 

"From berbere, the spice blend that takes more than three days to achieve complexity
 within heat, to injera, our gluten-free daily teff flatbread, which also requires
three moons to acquire the perfect elasticity and taste, and of course let us not forget
coffee, the country’s first culinary gift to the world, this book will open your eyes to 
culinary wonders from Ethiopia, the Land of Origins."  Yohanis Gebreyesus, Ethiopia (p. 5).

From Ethiopia: Making injera.
The introduction to Ethiopia, my newest cookbook, names the three most characteristic foods of this African nation, whose cuisine is generally very unfamiliar: teff flatbread, berbere spice blend, and coffee, which is Ethiopia's contribution to world cuisine. It's a really well-organized and well-written cookbook, and I've now tried two recipes from it, as well as one Ethiopian recipe from the New York Times cooking section (link ). I thought that I would try making injera flatbread, but the all the recipes I've seen are insanely complicated, involving days and days in order to ferment the teff, a special grain from Ethiopia, which is baked on a specialized griddle. 

While I've eaten at Ethiopian restaurants a few times, I'm really not familiar with Ethiopian food at all. The characteristic berbere spice blend contains very hot pepper as well as other spices like nigella seeds, cloves, ajowan (an herb that grows in Ethiopia), onion, garlic, ginger, cardamom, basil, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and fenugreek. I've now tried a couple of recipes with the little jar of it that I bought from Penzey's, and though it's really hot, it has a  pleasant flavor. I have one or two more recipes from Ethiopia that I hope to try. Although the directions in the cookbook are very clear, the process of slicing and chopping vegetables and cooking the various elements of each dish are rather time-consuming, but in the end, it’s worth doing.

Shiro Wat from Samin Nosrat



A vegan stew of chickpea flour, tomatoes, and berbere spice.
Hot but very delicious.

Potatoes and Cabbage in Ginger Turmeric Sauce

The Ethiopian name for this dish is  “አትክልት | ATAKILT” — while the ingredients are all familiar and available in any American supermarket, the result is surprisingly flavorful and unexpected. The cookbook gives the Ethiopian recipe names in both the Amharic script and also a transliteration, which is very interesting.



I served the potato and cabbage dish with a salad and the
green beans from the cookbook.

Green Beans and Carrots

I also made the dish ፎሶልያ | FOSELIA, Sautéed String Beans and Carrots, from the recipe in Ethiopia. It was also delicious and unusual — and made entirely from commonly available ingredients.

Green beans and carrots in a sauce of tomato and onion.

Quite a delicious meal!

Update: Two More Recipes from Ethiopia

Squash/pumpkin stew with berbere and other spices,
plus lamb chops (meat exceptional!) with recommended spices,
eaten with a very good bottle of wine.

Blog post and photos © 2022 mae sander.





13 comments:

  1. Yumm to everything. I will look for the Samin Nostrum recipe on the Times as we subscribe to that (and we have tried several of her recipes). I remember many years ago eating in an Ethopian restaurant. We used to go to Portland (Oregon) for our "big city" fix (when we lived in Eugene) and back then we would just wander around the city, grab the bus or train, eat when we felt like it ... fun times. So we just stumbled into that restaurant and were surprised when everything was served sans silverware -- you jus ate it with the bread -- I do remember it was all delicious and we felt quite cosmopolitan.

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  2. Interesting cookbook. Also interesting that my mom used to cook potatoes and cabbage in a ginger sauce when I was little. I have 4 younger brothers and a sister and mom would make a huge pot of this. We all loved it. I will have to think about making this. Have a great day today.

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  3. I've stayed away from trying to make injera for the same reasons. The food looks good, and it's so nice to try different ingredients and recipes.

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  4. Hello

    Your new cookbook sounds great. All the food looks yummy, I love flatbread.
    Potatoes and Cabbage in Ginger and Turmeric sounds healthy. I would love the Green beans and carrots too. Take care, enjoy your day and happy weekend!

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  5. I like the sound of those flavor combinations. I'm always especially drawn to hot.

    Maybe I will try looking for an Ethiopian restaurant in the Houston area first.

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  6. When I've eaten at the Ethiopian restaurant here, I've never been knocked out by the food. You do the bravest stuff in the kitchen!

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  7. There is an Ethiopian restaurant here, but I haven't gone yet. Maybe soon I'll feel like eating in a restaurant. I hope so. The green beans and carrot dish looks especially delicious.

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  8. Everything looks very good and I'm glad to hear many of the ingredients are easy to find. I happen to have an abundance of ginger right now, bought too much, and used it last night on a ramen noodle veggie dish.

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  9. I've never had Ethiopian food, but this all sounds wonderful. I need to check out that book because there are a lot of vegetarian recipes from what you described. I'm not sure I could take all that heat, though.

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  10. Always fun to learn new dishes.

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  11. It all looks soooo yummy and healthy!
    Before COVID we had international food festivals and it was the yummiest journeys through the world, I truly miss this.
    Fingers crossed they come back! Other... I´ll look up such foods and do myself, now that I can :-)

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  12. I liked htat the lst recipeis made out of common ingredients and that it looks so deliciousl

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