Last night I prepared an elaborate Ethiopian feast for some friends. Over the last few years I have developed a palate for Ethiopian food, mostly due to the efforts of a remarkable woman named Lydia who used to work at Cooks of Crocus Hill. Each year she would would make an incredible spread for all of us and I couldn't get enough of the spices and flavors.
Joel and I quickly became regulars at Fasika in St. Paul and I realized that it was time I grabbed the bull by the horns. I started my research online and then went to our local library to grab "Exotic Ethipian Food". I was hopeful that some of our local African markets would carry some ingredients to help me out, but was shocked when it was Cub Foods who came through for me.
The Ethiopian food I have seen and was trying to duplicate is eaten with your hands. In fact, the "plate" on which the food is served is a spongy flat bread and is eaten as well. Spicy, flavorful dishes are ladled onto this plate called injera and guests roll up the food in much the same way you would roll a cigar and pop it into their mouths.
I made Dor Wa't which is a very spicy chicken dish with hard-boiled eggs, collard greens with lamb, lentils with yams, iab (I tried to recreate a salty Ethipian cheese), a lemony salad, and fruit and cheese for dessert.
Some of the things that stood out about Ethiopian cuisine are how very different each of the items tasted even though they used a lot of the same spices. It seemed to me that each dish called for half it's weight in onions, but you could barely tell when you were eating. Another thing that really surprised me was that onions and other items were cooked without any oil at first. This develops a particular flavor unique to Ethiopian cooking. That isn't to say that Ethiopian food is low fat. Oh contrare! I had to cut back on the amount of fat in each dish. I think the collard recipe had me match butter to collard greens, pound for pound!
I made seasoned butter for one of the dishes, and I read that it is a very common ingredient. Basically you simmer butter and scrape off the solids. Then you dump seasonings into the butter and allow the seasonings to flavor the butter. Then strain them out and voila! Another item I made was berbere spice, which is a very hot combination of paprika, cayenne and about a dozen other ingredients. I used about 1/8 the amount called for in my dish and it was still really hot.
To serve the meal I covered our dining room table in saran wrap and spread the injera out on it. It was a lot of fun and something we will definitely do again!
Posts
