Tasty Ethiopia (Chow)

To celebrate Natalie's father's birthday we made Ethiopian food yesterday. And because it is a bit of a deal to manufacture we're re-gifting it today for the rest of the zoo vets... After the process of making the berbere, niter kebbeh, and other spice-related elements, everything is quite simple save the injera.

We make a sleazy injera, because we don't like waiting around several days, and we don't have a cool clay oven or one of the big modern circular injera grills. Although one of the grills would be really cool if we had a place to put it. Our injera is the one place that our Ethiopian cuisine falls down, and there is still a lot of experimentation going on. The proper elasticity is what is really escaping us, the injera tends to be too frangible to be a really effective utensil.

Our current injera recipe takes 1¼c all-purpose flour, 3/4c teff, ½c self rising flour, 2½t active dry yeast, and 2½c water and lets the mixture sit and bubble overnight. Just before cooking, add ½t baking soda. You should end up with a thin batter. Over medium-high heat, wipe your crepe pan down with oil and cook about a 3mm pancake of dough for 30-45 seconds. Cover and cook another 30-45 seconds. You should end up with a nice round piece of thin bread full of bubbles. Slide it out and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat...

Our pseudo-authentic berbere uses 2t cumin seed, 1t cadamom, 1½t allspice, 1t fenugreek seeds, 1t coriander, 8 cloves, 1t black peppercorns, 5t red pepper, 1T grated ginger, 1t turmeric, 1t salt, 3t paprika, and ½t cinnamon, toasting all the seeds and then grinding everything up. Careful inhaling, it is wonderful but powerful.

Our equally Maxsonized niter kebbeh starts off with a bubbling pound of butter -- for your health. Then for an hour on low heat cook ½c chopped onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2t grated ginger, ½t turmeric, 4 crushed cardamom seeds, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, ¼ grated nutmeg, ¼t ground fenugreek seeds, and 1T fresh basil. Pour it through a cheesecloth and refrigerate until you need it.

With those two accessories we make any wat we feel like. My favorite atakilt (vegetable) wats involve cabbage and zucchini, the master vegetable. Last night we also made a tilapia wat and a lamb wat.

Mmm. If any readers who know where we live ever want to visit, let us know a day or two in advance and we can whip some up for you.