ethiopian dinner and vwav blondies September 21, 2007
Posted by a-k in dessert, vwav.trackback
last night culminated in a feast that’s been brewing for 2 days. on tuesday night i made two base staples of ethiopian food: niter kebbeh and berbere, using the recipes from pakupaku. Niter kebbeh is a spiced fat used to saute (or fry, as the case might be) your onions and garlic and veggies, and berbere is a spicy roasted mixture of cayenne, paprika, ginger, cardamom, cloves and more! i could just sit and have smells of the berbere all day! yummy.
the plan also called for making injera (the spongey flatbread on which the different stews are ladled and also your eating utensil!) from scratch… however that failed miserably, mostly because i didn’t grind the teff into flour before starting the sourdough (!). that was really dumb and unfortunate, as i ended up with wet mush in my pan. luckily the seward coop sells injera so i picked up some of that. i made four stews: gomen (collards), atar allecha (spicy green peas), yemiser w’et (spicy lentils), and a cabbage, carrot, potato mixture that i’ve had at the blue nile but whose name escapes me. although i’m overall pretty happy with the meal and the work i put into it, i thought both the green peas and the lentils weren’t spicy (hot) enough, and the lentils lacked the depth of flavor i find when i eat at an ethiopian restaurant. i think the lentils needed more berbere than the recipe called for, maybe, or perhaps i should have cooked the onions and spices together longer before adding the bulk of the dish to let the flavors develop. it’s definitely not going to stop me from trying again sometime, but i think i’ll wait until i get the motivation to put all that time into making ethiopian again (six burners on the stove would have been nice for this). here are some closeups of the different dishes (there is plain soygurt dolloped in the center):
now, on to the tasty dessert baking. a was going home to visit her mom this weekend, and since i couldn’t join her because of work, i decided to bake something for her to bring along. i went with the raspberry chocolate-chip blondies from vwav and i think they turned out pretty tasty!
this despite the fact that my glass dish was a little too small so it made more of a cake than a bar, and while wiping off the stovetop after the ethiopian cooking accidentally knocking the temperature dial up to 475 for almost 10 minutes (should have been 350)–hence, a few charred chocolate chips. i might add more of the raspberry mixture next time and cut back on the chocolate chips (for myself), but definitely delicious!
ah! everything looks so great. how was it with the yogurt? i’ve never had ethiopian food served that way. sorry to hear some of the recipes weren’t cutting it for you. i really need to update that whole section as i’ve strayed somewhat from the recipes posted. i wonder too, i’ve always purchased berbere already prepared from a market, i wonder if it has more cayenne that the recipe on paku? that recipe is borrowed from somewhere online, and i’ve never tried it before. i’ve also noticed, that when i do purchase berbere, that they are often different colors, so i wonder if some aren’t just hotter than others? let me know before you try again, and i will try to get you more updated recipes.
xo
kittee
also, this is sorta sick, but since i only make ethiopian food when i’m having a party (cuz it’s so much work), i always use a ton of niter kibeh. a ton! i find that really helps the food taste the way it does in a restaurant. i would never cook with that much oil on a daily basis, but maybe you need to up the spiced earth balance, chica.
xo
kittee
yeah, i think i should add more cayenne, or just more berbere than the recipe calls for? i thought 1/2 a cup (for the berbere recipe) was a lot! but apparently not; and i bought 90,000 (insert pepper spice units here) cayenne instead of 30,000. i bet using prepared berbere would change it a bunch. do you usually get powder or paste? i’m wondering if a paste would change the taste too. it’s really only my second time making ethiopian (and first time making more than two dishes), so i bet if i work on one dish at a time, i could perfect them a little bit more. there is another website, too, that i made my original batch of spicy lentils from. i should compare the recipes and see how they differ. thanks for your input, kittee!
That ethiopian food looks stunning!! I really, really have to try those recipes, thanks for posting! And you’re also making me wonder why I’ve had VWAV for a year and never made those blondies.
i’ve never used berbere paste, they don’t sell it in DC (where i stock up–or at least i’ve never seen it there). go for a powdered version, and maybe buy two different ones (from different markets), so you get a variety of flavor. i always worry if i make a platter with more than one berbere dish that the flavors will be too similar, so i usually use different spice mixes.
i really need to post the doro wot recipe i make, it’s soo good. i also make a berbere black eyed pea dish that is good.
i’m working on a zine right now, which will have the updates, so stay tuned!
xo
kittee
vv- yes, the blondies are delicious! and super easy. now that i’ve remembered how easy desserts are to make, i can’t control myself. luckily i have willing consumers at work, or i’d be a walking sugar crash.
kittee- i am very pro-zine and more/different ethiopian recipes! i am very tuned.
Potatos/carrots/cabbage is atkilt, I believe. I’ve seen a red spicy lentil dish described as misir key wot–I’m sure it’s different from what you prepared, but I wonder how?
Ethiopian food is pretty much my favorite thing ever. I just need to figure out a lower fat version–is there such a thing?? Thanks for the fantastic recipes and even better pics!! My mouth is watering!
The ethiopian food looks sooo good, its been ages since I have had any! Oh and the blondies look good too!