Posted on 04/08/2016 4:43:56 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
I worked for several years in a large office that included many people who were originally from other countries. We had people from India, the Philippines, China, Korea, and Africa; and our office potlucks were amazing.
I first tasted Ethiopian food at one of those parties, when a young woman made 'Siga Wot', a spicy beef stew; and 'Injera', the spongy, fermented sourdough bread that is used to scoop up other foods, and sometimes used as a sort of 'plate'.
To make Siga Wot, you must first have Berbere, a spicy seasoning used in many Ethiopian dishes. There are many slightly different versions of it - some include Fenugreek, which I'm not crazy about and leave out. (I believe that Berbere may be the same type of seasoning that shows up in many Ethiopian recipes as "chow".)
Here is the Epicurious recipe for Berbere:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/ethiopian-spice-mix-berbere-104015
And here is a recipe for the Siga Wot (there are many versions, just as with any of our classic American dishes; this is just one):
http://www.african-food-recipes.com/ethiopian-siga-wat.html
The narration of the following video appears to be in Amharic, but it gives you an idea of the technique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR5o0lpI-bw
This is best served with real Injera; I haven't made the bread myself yet, but we were recently in a local Seventh Day Adventist shop and they had Teff flour, so I bought some and will try making it soon. (Be sure that you get Teff *flour*, and not the whole grain. The grain (the plant is actually a grass) is so fine that you would have difficulty trying to grind it into flour. The brand we purchased is Bob's Red Mill; but it is also sold in bulk in health food stores.
Here is the Exploratorium's recipe for Injera; it's a recipe that uses some whole wheat flour, which many Ethiopians who have come to America have adapted to include, probably because until very recently Teff was not widely available in the US, and mixing it with other flour made the Teff that they did have go further. But you can also find recipes made entirely of Teff; which is what I'm going to try.
https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-injera.html
Lastly, one of the most fascinating things to me about Ethiopia is Lalibela, and its rock-cut churches:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalibela
-JT
This week, Ethiopian food!
(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking ping list, please send a private message.)
-JT
Wishing you Teff luck (duck’n & runn’n)
Ethiopian? It’ll be a very short list.
Ethiopian food?
LOL! My thoughts as well...
We’re cooking Brazilian Picanha with garlic sauce tomorrow.
Hmmmm...I don’t know. :)
I stopped at my nearby Asian market Wednesday. Thay also have a small restaurant. They cook some dishes and sell them in the store. I bought some Spicy Snails. Abdo-lutely awesome!
My experiences of Ethiopian food have taken place in America, with immigrant families who have come to live here and brought their cuisine with them.
I worked for a year with a young lady who hated to eat alone. Her everyday greeting was, “Come, eat with me.”
Perhaps the communal aspect of sharing and appreciating food is especially important where food is scarce.
-JT
There’s an Ethiopian dish that’s somewhat like NC barbecue, but beef, that I’ve enjoyed. Serving the food on a giant piece of flatbread with no utensils was different, you tear off a piece of the bread and pick up the meat with it, then eat it all.
There aren’t many things that I don’t like, and few that I wouldn’t try. But I would not eat snails ;-)
-JT
Yike !
A lot of our American Southern food has been influenced by African ‘foodways’. I’ve always been interested in the Gullah, and their cooking:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullah
-JT
I have no experience cooking Ethiopian food.
I used to work with someone that was Greek and she brought in something I thought was amazing one day. It was way too strong for most, but I loved it. I will have to make it again soon..
Skordalia
Ingredients
5-6 medium potatoes
5-7 cloves of garlic (according to preference)
2 tbsps red wine vinegar
1/2 a cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 a cup water (from the boiled potatoes)
1 tbsp salt
Instructions
To prepare this skordalia recipe, start by washing thoroughly the potatoes. Peel the potatoes and place them in a large saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for about 30 minutes. (For this skordalia recipe the potatoes need to boil, until very tender.) Drain them in a colander and keep 1/2 a cup of the boiling water.
In a food processor add 1/2 a cup of the boiling water, the garlic, red wine vinegar and season with salt. Blend until the garlic is diluted. Cut the potatoes in pieces, add them in the food processor and blend to combine. Pour in the olive oil a little bit at a time, whilst blending, like making mayonnaise. Blend until the oil is incorporated and the mixture is smooth and creamy. If you like your skordalia to have a mild garlicky taste, a little trick is to boil the garlic (peeled) in some milk for about 5 minutes, before using.
When making a skordalia recipe, it is essential, that the potatoes are hot. If the potatoes are cold, then it will be difficult to combine the ingredients and the skordalia will become lumpy.
If you don’t have a food processor to prepare this skordalia recipe, you can mash the potatoes with a fork and combine the ingredients, using a whisk.
Serve the skordalia as a delicious dip or side dish with some toasted bread or pita breads. Enjoy!
I actually like the’ outside the box’ cooking idea! :)
Also, much thanks for the time and work you put into this weekly thread. Very informative and I’ve saved lots of recipes from other FReepers on this ping list. Thanks!
I’ve seen recipes for Skordalia many times, but never tried it. Thanks for reminding me!
Reading recipes for it has always reminded me of the most wonderful hummus that I used to get when I worked on K Street in DC - the smoothest, most garlicky and wonderful hummus, from a little hole-in-the-wall place; and like nothing I’d ever had before.
I will have to try making both. (When researching the best hummus recipes, I learned that it’s important to actually rub off the fibrous coating on the chickpeas; I think that - and the tons of garlic - were the secret to the K Street hummus.
-JT
The beef stew is very easy to make, once you’ve got the spice mixture. If you like spicy beef, you’ll love it. But it does need the flatbread or at least rice as an accompaniment.
(When I used to wolf down Kimchi and other spicy Korean foods, my Korean friends kept admonishing me to take time and eat some rice - they were afraid for my stomach ;-)
-JT
WOW, thanks for both those links. Lalibela is interesting, I had never before heard about it. Would like to go there, as well as the cave churches in Cappodocia.
I did not know injera was so easy to make.
Is injera the same thing as naan?
When I lived in the Bay Area I enjoyed an Ethiopian restaurant in Berkeley called the Blue Nile. They had the rubbery bread, but I thought it was called naan. Perhaps I’ve misremembered.
The food was wonderfully messy. I loved sitting on the big pillows on the floor and sharing the large round table with strangers from many countries, and learning to use the thin bread to scoop up the spicy meats and veggies from the common platter in the center.
Hippie days.
I remember the proprietor was a very refined, very well mannered older gentleman from Ethiopia.
I love vinegar and I love garlic. Your recipe sounds delicious!
Thank you for this interesting post. I recently tasted the Ethiopian bread and the beef stew at an end-of-quarter potluck for our students. It was very good. I need to find an Ethiopian restaurant now and try some more dishes. We have students from many parts of the world and our potlucks are always amazing!
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