First attempt at Ethiopian cooking...du du duuuhhhhhhhh

Ok so this post is really late, I actually attempted my first Ethiopian dinner the first week of August.  I know, I know, I'm a terrible blogger.  I've been wanting to have my neighbors over for an authentic Ethiopian dinner to thank them for all their help while Chris has been gone.  So I needed some guinea pigs first.  In comes the Wulczynski family!

Joe and Stacy, their daughter Tessa and new baby Lillian....Lillian didn't eat of course!  I love how Betsy's under the table looking right at the camera ha!
Let's start at the beginning.  First we have some semi-exotic spices along with everyday items.  I say "semi" because I couldn't find them anywhere! I finally found them in Florence at a Middle Eastern market. 

These are just the spices I used to make the Niter Kebbeh (or Nitr Q'eb or a variety of other ways to spell it).  This is basically just spiced butter.  I used 1lb of butter and all the spices and simmered for about an hour.

After it was done simmering and the butter was fully infused with the flavor of the spices, I strained it through cheesecloth three times.  There are no pictures of this step because, well, it's messy and takes at least two hands (I could have used more!). 

So the next day was the big cooking day.  I had many more spices and such to use for the two dishes I would be making.  (sorry no picture) I made Doro Wat and Misr Allecha.  Doro (chicken) Wat (stew) is a very common dish (for those who can afford the meat).  It's main spice is Berbere which is a hot spicy blend of several spices.  My little bro and his wife got me some from a Somalian market around the corner from their house.  I've seen recipes to make your own but I'd rather get it from someone who really knows! I think one of it's main ingredients is some type of paprika.  Traditionally, Doro Wat is also served with a peeled hard boiled egg that's been soaking up the sauce.  One egg per person.  I omitted this ingredient because I find it odd and I've never eaten the egg before when I ordered it at a restaurant. 

One of the steps for the Doro Wat was difficult but fun.  I had to use a mortar and pestle to break up the cardamom seeds.

Funny story....I was standing on my kitchen stool the other day looking at my spices and waaay in the back I found an unopened jar of McCormick ground cardamom!! I have no idea where, when or why I bought it.  I searched all three stores here and couldn't find it so maybe I got it at the commissary in Germany??? (3 years ago?)  Oh well, it will be easier to make Chai!

Back to my Doro Wat....I had to use a lot of onions, I cry pretty bad when dealing with onions but I used my Pampered Chef chopping thingy and that seemed to help. You put the onions into an empty pot and let them simmer without burning or adding water, phew! Then you add a lot of spices and finally some water, then the chicken and let it simmer for a while.  This is what you get when you're done...

The recipe I had called for a whole chicken so I bought one that was already cut up.  However, since it did not simmer all day, the chicken was not falling off the bone and we had to use a fork to get it off.  Next time I'll use chicken breasts and chop it up so we can just pick it up with our Injera. I was afraid it would be too spicy but as soon as Tessa (5) tasted it, she said "oh yeah, that's a winner!" and gave me the thumbs up. :D

As you can see I had an injera on everyone's plate since I don't have a pan big enough to make injera in to serve the entire dinner on. 

On to the Misr Allecha.  It's a lentil mash of sorts and one of my favorites.  I searched all over the internet and only found this one recipe.  Well, it kinda tasted like feet.  Joe and Stacy enjoyed it but it wasn't too good to me, probably because I know what it's supposed to taste like.  This dish gets it's yellow coloring from the turmeric (which smells like feet).  I'm going to try to find this recipe in a cookbook and hopefully it will be better! Maybe just less turmeric next time? It was only 1/2 tsp to begin with!!

The little green bits are finely chopped jalapeno peppers.  I didn't do too good with the "finely" part. 

This past Sunday I attended an Ethiopian cooking class down in Springfield.  It wasn't quite like the cooking classes I took in Germany where they make everything in front of you then you have a few bites.  She made injera, the onions for the doro wat and then a dip kind of thing, like an Ethiopian hummus, then they brought out plates with about 6 different dishes on it that she made the day before.  We were able to ask her questions about how to make different recipes or different techniques, which was helpful.  One fun thing, the first step in the Doro Wat recipe she gave us is "kill the chicken and prepare it for cooking" HA!!  I was able to purchase a spice blend for the hummus thing made by an Ethiopian woman in Ethiopia. ;)

I'm very excited about being able to finally make my neighbors dinner and have confidence that it will taste good.  There are a few things I did learn while making this meal:

1. Use cut up chicken so utensils aren't needed.
2. When seeding and chopping the jalapeno peppers, use gloves.  Two hours later, even after multiple hand washings, your mouth will burn if you put your finger in it.
3. Do not look over the pot when adding the berbere and paprika, you will choke. 
4. Always look all the way into your spice cabinet before going through the effort of grinding your own spices.
5. If a spice smells like feet, it will make the food taste like feet.