The Art of Ethiopian: Part 4 - Cheese, Greens, & Injera

This is the fourth and final post in my Art of Ethiopian Cuisine post series. From a 100%-not-Ethiopian-American, I must say this all tasted really dang good. And it doesn't take too much hands-on work time. If I had had a real Ethiopian over to try it, I'm not sure what their opinion would be. But if you want the "Americanized" easy version, these recipes are sure to do the trick!


The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 1 - Beef & Pork
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 2 - Chicken & Fish
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 3 - Potatoes & Lentils
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 4 - Cheese, Greens, & Injera

Ayib

The cheese is called "Iab or Ayib" and is like a cottage cheese/ricotta hybrid. You usually need it to temper the heat in these types of dishes, but my recipes leave out the Berberi spices you will notice. If you like super hot foods, feel free to pick some up and sprinkle it into all these stews. Because I don't have hours or days to make it the proper way, THIS recipe from Whats4Eats comes close to approximating Iab.  


Ingredients (Ayib):
1 cup large curd cottage cheese
2 tbsp plain Greek yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
Sprinkle sea salt

Step 1: Rinse the cottage cheese in cold water and let it drain. Press dry with paper towels if you like. I tried that and the towel got cheese curds stuck all over it so try at your own risk.

Step 2: In a bowl, mix the cheese curds, yogurt, lemon juice, and salt. Refrigerate until serving.

Gomen Wat

The greens are called "Gomen Wat" (guess Wat...again) and the recipe I used is based off the one HERE on my trusty AllRecipes site. I didn't have collard greens, so I used what I had, which was kale. I bet you could use spinach instead as well, any leafy green will do.

Ingredients (Gomen Wat):
2 cups chopped kale
2 cups water/stock
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Sea salt

Step 1: Put the greens, spices, and liquids in a small crock pot. Cook on low for 1-3 hours. 

Make sure to stir every now and then. The greens will wilt and take up less room. I like my greens extra tangy to counteract the bitter. I also sprinkle them with a healthy dose of fresh coarse ground sea salt. Keep on low until you serve.

Injera

And of course, the cornerstone of the meal, that which holds it all together and is both plate and utensil, the Injera bread. Usually it is made from pure Teff flour and allowed to ferment and rise for three days. I unfortunately had neither the grain nor the time. So I based mine off this cheat recipe HERE from Whats4Eats, which does not need either. It rather ingeniously uses club soda and lemon for both the bubbles and the tang.

Ingredients (Injera):
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups club soda

As you can see, I had lemon-lime club soda so at first I didn't use the lemon juice. Several other recipes I found also use vinegar if you don't have lemon.

Step 1: Combine all ingredients and stir just until all flour is incorporated. The club soda will bubble quite a bit. 

Step 2: On a hot, sprayed griddle, pour about 1/2 cup of batter. 

Step 3: Typically injera is only cooked on one side, but I found that this better was just thick and pancake-y enough that I had to let it mostly cook, then flip for a final minute or two. There were still bubbles, which approximates injera. However the consensus was that the dough is thicker and sweeter than usual. So these are the Americanized Ethiopian pancake version of injera. And actually some said they prefer it, so perhaps this is a better way to ease an American palate into ethnic cuisine.

And this was the final meal. Ground beef, pork, chicken, fish, lentils, potatoes, greens, cheese and my injera pancakes. You of course don't have to cook all these at the same time, but I encourage you to at least make some injera and try one or two stews. You may find that you crave the flavors of Ethiopia from now on! And by cooking all this at home, you control the ingredients, so this meal turns out to be quite healthy, and very filling.

What's your favorite ethnic cuisine?

The Art of Ethiopian: Part 3 - Potatoes & Lentils

Welcome to part three of my four-part Art of Ethiopia Cuisine post series! If you've been following along, you already know how to make Minchet-Abesh Alicha, Doro Wat, Yasa Tibs, and know Injera is just around the corner! The stars of this post were considered side dishes to us meat-eaters, but could easily stand alone in an all-vegetarian meal. This is all about the tubers and lentils. Lentils for Lent, ha. That should be a thing too.

Lentil stew is called "Mesir Wat" (remember Wats?) and the recipe I based mine off of is HERE at A Spicy Perspective. The two potato stew starring both Yukon classics and sweet potatoes was of my own invention. I had had something similar at the Nile, an Ethiopian restaurant near me, and was trying to replicate it. I think it's pretty darn close. I made a small batch, but you could easily scale it up to however many potatoes you want to use.

The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 1 - Beef & Pork
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 2 - Chicken & Fish
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 3 - Potatoes & Lentils
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 4 - Cheese, Greens, & Injera

Ingredients (2 Potato Stew):
1 sweet potato
2 large baking potatos
1 cup water/stock
Garlic salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp cornstarch

Step 1: Dice the potatoes into tiny pieces. The smaller the pieces, the faster they will cook. Just try to make the pieces uniform in size.

Step 2: I used my rice cooker for this. Because I'm in love with this appliance. You can use a small slow cooker too. Put the potatoes in, and add the spices and liquid. Cook on low for at least 30 minutes, or until ready to serve. About 10 minutes prior to dinner, add the cornstarch. Make sure it mixes in well, no-one wants a cornstarch bomb. This will thicken the sauce, but is not absolutely required.




Ingredients (Mesir Wat):
1 cup lentils (any color, I had brown)
1.5 cups water/stock
1 small can tomato paste
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp minced onion
1 tsp garlic salt

Step 1: Combine all ingredients in a small slow cooker. Or sauce pot.

Step 2: Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for at least 30-60 minutes, until lentils are soft and fully cooked. You can leave them in there foreeeeeever, just keep stirring occasionally and add more liquid as needed.

These were really tasty, I liked the slight tomato-ey flavor and the garlic.

Thickened up nicely after about 1 hour in the crock pot. I like lentils a lot, and this would be tasty with some added veggies as a meal unto itself!

More to come: Cheese, Greens & Injera

The Art of Ethiopian: Part 2 - Chicken & Fish

This is part two of a four-part series on Ethiopian cooking, the American way. Since I am such an expert (I know someone from Ethiopia. Plus I've eaten it like... four times) I decided to share my versions of some of my favorites. The recipes are fairly straightforward, you just need to obtain the spices, and be patient. All said, the cooking for this dinner party probably took about 6 hours. The dishes took twice that long. ;)

The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 1 - Beef & Pork
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 2 - Chicken & Fish
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 3 - Potatoes & Lentils
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 4 - Cheese, Greens, & Injera

Part 2: Chicken and Fish

Sounds like the punchline of a bad Lent joke. Appropriate for April I guess. (Is April still when Lent happens?) But since the earlier post had already covered the red meats, this one is for the "white meats". Sorta.

Chicken stew in Ethiopian is called Doro Wat. I've figured that most things that say "Wat" mean meat stew, whereas "Tibs" means meat and vegetables stewed together. As in "Yasa Tibs" meaning my fish, tomato & spinach stew. The recipe I based the Doro Wat from is found HERE from NomNomPaleo, while the fish inspiration is found at Allrecipes HERE. 


Ingredients (Doro Wat):

3-4 pounds chicken (I used 2 thighs and 2 boneless skinless breast)
1/2 cup diced onion
2 tbsp butter
1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp ginger powder

Step 1: Add stock to chicken in a pan, and cook over low heat until no pink. Cut the breast into bite-sized cubes.

Step 2: In a separate pan, add butter and diced onions. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent. Add 1 cup onion to the chicken.

Step 3: Add the rest of the spice, and simmer for 30 minutes until serving. Add more stock if liquid starts to evaporate.


Ingredients (Yasa Tibs):
1-2 small tilapia (or other white fish) fillets
1 cup fresh spinach leaves
1 tbsp garam masala
1 small can tomato paste
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup fish sauce (or vinegar if you don't have it)
2 tbsp lemon juice
Garlic salt to taste
Squirt of Sriracha or Tabasco, if you like

Step 1: Cut the fish into bite-sized pieces. Cook in a pan with olive oil until white and flaky. Add all sauces and spices and spinach. Simmer at least until spinach is wilted, until serving. This one is delightfully salty and tangy from the fish sauce and acidic lemon juice. And probably the healthiest stew thus far, with little to no fat and a spinach boost.

Up next: Part 3 - Potatoes & Lentils

The Art of Ethiopian cuisine: Part 1 - Beef & Pork

Happy April! 

Spring has officially begun, and soon enough we will feel it every day in the weather. It's time for snow melting, sunshine, green grass, boatloads of flowers, chickadees and bunny rabbits. So ethnic food is a perfect fit! (Wait, what?) Uhhh yeah, you haven't heard of Ethnic Food April?!? Totally a thing. I just made it so.

Since moving to Colorado, I've been exposed to new cuisines pretty often. I've become hooked on Ethiopian. A student in my year is from Ethiopia, and she has both shown us local restaurants and cooked a unique Ethiopian dinner in her home for us. I recently decided to attempt to replicate a full Ethiopian meal at home! This will be a series of posts, all from a ginormous dinner party I threw. 

Also fittingly, this is my 200th blog post! Wow, I didn't know I had so many things to talk about. It seems like not too long ago I was excited about my 100th Post wherein I brined and baked a whole pheasant! (Not as hard to do as it sounds, but just as delicious as you might think). My how time flies. Like pheasants. Anywho, sorry to sidetrack you, on to the Ethipoian!

The Food

Ethiopian cuisine, if you have never had it, mostly consist of various stews, eaten with your hands and the help of a unique flatbread called Injera. The bread is made from a unique grain called Teff, and fermented for several days. It is slightly sour, bubbly, and spongy. It is a very unique experience the first time you try it, but it becomes an addiction. The stews vary from purely vegan (lentils, sweet potato, etc) through various types of meats (beef, lamb, pork) and mixtures. They lay the bread on a huge middle plate, then scoop piles of deliciously spiced concoctions onto it, which you then scoop up and eat with more pieces of injera and your hands. If you've never tried it, I highly recommend it! Even more fun as a social experience. 

The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 1 - Beef & Pork
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 2 - Chicken & Fish
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 3 - Potatoes & Lentils
The Art of Ethiopian Cuisine: Part 4 - Cheese, Greens, & Injera

Part 1: Beef and Pork

So the ground beef stew is called Minchet-Abesh Alicha. The recipe I used was based off the recipe HERE from Food.com. Meanwhile, apparently pork stew isn't really an Ethiopian thing (at least not that I could find much online) but the recipe I ended up sorta following can be found HERE from Thomas the Accidental Gourmet. As far as I can tell, they don't eat pork in Ethiopia. But in America we sure do. So I decided any meat can be stew-ified and went ahead.

Ingredients (Minchet-Abesh Alicha):
1 pound ground beef
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup diced onions
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup chicken stock/water
Garlic salt
2-3 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp nutmeg
1/2 tbsp cinnamon

The spices really make the dishes shine. But there is plenty of room for substitution. If you don't have some spices, or don't want to shell out for them, don't worry about it and use whatever spice mixture you like. It's the bread that really makes the meal unique!


Step 1: Brown the ground beef and drain. (I actually used ground turkey, shhh don't tell!) Add either 1/2 cup onions to butter and cook until translucent, or use dried onion flakes, about 2 tbsp. Mix with the ground beef. 
Step 2: Add all spices you are using, stock or water, and diced tomatoes. Simmer for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better. All the spices blend together and infuse the meat. Your house/apartment will smell divine! This was probably the favorite of all the dishes cooked.

Ingredients (Pork Stew):
4 pork chops (or 1 small roast) diced
1/2 cup stock/water
2 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp curry powder
1/2 can diced tomatoes

Step 1: Dice the pork, brown in a pan with the stock. Add in the spices and bring to a simmer.

Step 2: Add the diced tomatoes, or 1 small can tomato paste. Simmer another 10 minutes or until ready to serve.

This is what the finished meal looked like:

The ground beef stew is mid-left, pork is on the upper right. Wait until the injera post, where you get to learn how to make Ethiopian "pancakes"...

Up next: Chicken & Fish!