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September 25, 2008
Ethiopian food
A couple weekends ago, we were at my parents' house. And as usual, we couldn't resist going to the Dekalb Farmers Market, the United Nations of food. We always feel like we've visited the world after going there. Not to mention getting the cheapest produce around along with exotic cheeses and spices and so on ad infinitum.
On the way there, we drove past a teeny little Ethiopian food store. I casually mentioned to Tim that I had always wanted to make Ethiopian food--so he spontaneously (!) turned around and dropped me off. I didn't know enough about the spice mixes (decided to go home and research that first), but I saw a bag of enormous (I'd guess about two feet in diameter), crepe-like injera and bought a package.
I found a few recipes online--here and looked at a couple of other sites as well. I kind of improvised from there, making it less spicy for our tastes, and using what we had on hand. There are some recipes for injera there.
We also realized that since Ethiopian food is such a communal thing, it would be more fun to have someone over, someone who wasn't afraid to experiment a little bit. Which turned out to be our good friend and budding musicologist, Carrie. The kids like her, too. Though our esoteric conversation seemed to be a little too much for Elanor.
So, here's what I made: a beef stew (siga wat), lentil salad and a vegetable stew (yetakelt w'et), all piled onto injera, with more injera on the side with which to eat the food.
It's complex and spicy like Indian food, but more earthy. Definitely something I want to make again. It took awhile (basically for the beef, you start by cooking the onions until they practically melt), but I think I could tweak things to use the slow-cooker for some of it. And we had enough to eat for days and days afterwards.
cooking stuff , friends | By Tim and Jo | 2:30 PM
Comments
Speaking of HOT, I made the zilzil acleha last night and it was delicious. It wasn't til this morning that I realized that I'd read it as 4 spicy peppers instead of 4 tsp spicy peppers. I used 3 jalapenos (to cut down on the heat!) and of course, it was very, very hot and absolutely delicious.Keep posting the recipes, Mary. I'll try them all. And you'll know me when you see me I'm the lady with the white pony tail and smoke coming out of her ears! Kathleen
Posted by: Marialyn at March 22, 2012 1:55 PM
