Ethiopian eats. With homemade injera.

caliking

Somewhat off the beaten path.

We had a hankering for Ethiopian food a while ago, but ended up going out for something else that night. The bug stuck with me, and a plan was afoot. 

Started by making  what seem to be 2 of the pillars of Ethiopian cooking, berbere (coriander, cumin, pepper, fenugreek, cinnamon, paprika, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom) and nit’r kibbe (basically spiced ghee):


For the doro wat, rubbed  chix quarters with berbere, then  smoked with apple pellets in the smoker tray. Plan was to pick up some smoke flavor before adding them to the stew base: 



The start of the tikil gomen: 


The injera was the trickiest part. Spent about a week experimenting with different recipes for the batter, before figuring out what I wanted to do. I wanted to try and stay true to traditional methods, so I started the levain with teff and sourdough starter.



 Fermented for a few days, then added self-rising flour, since  I needed the baking powder to get good “eyes” in the injera. 



Plated shot doesn’t look like much, since I was hungry and running out of steam. From 12 o’clock- tikil gomen (cabbage and carrots, with turmeric, nit’r kibbe and stuff); misr wat (lentils); injera, doro wat (chicken stew); and what I call “greens wat” (collard greens, mustard greens, beet greens, and beets with ras el hanout. Since everything else had berbere in it).



Everything was spot on! The doro wot had wonderful smoke flavor, and I  was particularly pleased with how the injera turned out. Took some time to plan and execute, but definitely worth the effort. Some of these are going to end up in the regular rotation. 

Thanks for looking

caliking

And I wish I knew how to upload smaller pics from my phone...

Ozzie_Isaac

Freakin amazing!!  What a great cook and process.

Legume

Fantastic Man, fantastic.

nolaegghead

Awesome.   I tried injera a while back, bought teff, turned out horrible.  Once the shame in that failure wears off I intend to try again.

Looks like you had a perfect confluence of conditions.  

I have joked in the past that eating Ethiopian food is good practice for owning pets that have "accidents".  Some here will get this.

caliking

nolaegghead said:

Awesome.   I tried injera a while back, bought teff, turned out horrible.  Once the shame in that failure wears off I intend to try again.

Looks like you had a perfect confluence of conditions.  

I have joked in the past that eating Ethiopian food is good practice for owning pets that have "accidents".  Some here will get this.

Now that's funny!

True story - Sunday was "cutlery day" in our house growing up. We always ate with our hands at home (still do on most days), but my folks figured we shouldn't look like "savages" in public. Hence, the need for practice

And I've got the injera thing down pat now. Spent a week (or more) up to my eyeballs in different iterations of injera  batter, but now I can bang them out with my eyes closed. 

nolaegghead

As i will inevitably try injera again, I might have to go solo just to get the feel of the game, and if (and when) it doesn't meet my overly high expectations, pick your brain for tips.

Not many Ethiopians in NOLA, and I know none.  Probably be a different story if I lived in DC.

(sidebar)

My brother got a new girlfriend and he was telling Bridget she drinks coffee black, but he drinks his with cream.   Furthermore, he said, she insists he pour the cream into a "creamer" to dispense into the coffee.  Because, he said (she said), "we are not savages".  

Bridget relayed this to me, and my response was: "what the hell is wrong with pouring it right out of the damn container and what is wrong with being a savage?".

That said, I understand the "public" thing, and, not that I agree personally with it, keeping up appearances is important.  But put me in a closed room with sauced BBQ and I'll look like a crime victim whilst burping when I'm done.

bgebrent

Amazing cook dude!  Great documentation.  Outstanding all around. 

Killit_and_Grillit

Well freakin done. 

Photo Egg

caliking said:

Somewhat off the beaten path.

We had a hankering for Ethiopian food a while ago, but ended up going out for something else that night. The bug stuck with me, and a plan was afoot. 

Started by making  what seem to be 2 of the pillars of Ethiopian cooking, berbere (coriander, cumin, pepper, fenugreek, cinnamon, paprika, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom) and nit’r kibbe (basically spiced ghee):


For the doro wat, rubbed  chix quarters with berbere, then  smoked with apple pellets in the smoker tray. Plan was to pick up some smoke flavor before adding them to the stew base: 



The start of the tikil gomen: 


The injera was the trickiest part. Spent about a week experimenting with different recipes for the batter, before figuring out what I wanted to do. I wanted to try and stay true to traditional methods, so I started the levain with teff and sourdough starter.



 Fermented for a few days, then added self-rising flour, since  I needed the baking powder to get good “eyes” in the injera. 



Plated shot doesn’t look like much, since I was hungry and running out of steam. From 12 o’clock- tikil gomen (cabbage and carrots, with turmeric, nit’r kibbe and stuff); misr wat (lentils); injera, doro wat (chicken stew); and what I call “greens wat” (collard greens, mustard greens, beet greens, and beets with ras el hanout. Since everything else had berbere in it).



Everything was spot on! The doro wot had wonderful smoke flavor, and I  was particularly pleased with how the injera turned out. Took some time to plan and execute, but definitely worth the effort. Some of these are going to end up in the regular rotation. 

Thanks for looking

It's like we are cooking on a different dimension. I know you work hard at it but some people just have a gift.

thetrim

I would pour bourbon slushies directly from a bag into your mouth after seeing this!

Great cook!

alaskanassasin

 Wow that looks amazing! Thank you for sharing, it sounds like all your hard work paid off!

caliking

Photo Egg said:

It's like we are cooking on a different dimension. I know you work hard at it but some people just have a gift.

Aw thanks, Darian I just enjoy tinkering with recipes for stuff that I enjoy eating. 

caliking

alaskanassasin said:

 Wow that looks amazing! Thank you for sharing, it sounds like all your hard work paid off!

It did indeed. We really enjoyed this meal.

caliking

nolaegghead said:

As i will inevitably try injera again, I might have to go solo just to get the feel of the game, and if (and when) it doesn't meet my overly high expectations, pick your brain for tips.

Not many Ethiopians in NOLA, and I know none.  Probably be a different story if I lived in DC.

(sidebar)

My brother got a new girlfriend and he was telling Bridget she drinks coffee black, but he drinks his with cream.   Furthermore, he said, she insists he pour the cream into a "creamer" to dispense into the coffee.  Because, he said (she said), "we are not savages".  

Bridget relayed this to me, and my response was: "what the hell is wrong with pouring it right out of the damn container and what is wrong with being a savage?".

That said, I understand the "public" thing, and, not that I agree personally with it, keeping up appearances is important.  But put me in a closed room with sauced BBQ and I'll look like a crime victim whilst burping when I'm done.

 Only after marriage was I  informed that the general populace did not drink juice straight from the carton

CPARKTX

Wow that looks amazing!!  Fantastic cook.  I love Ethiopian food but have only eaten it at restaurants.  Well done.

caliking

CPARKTX said:

Wow that looks amazing!!  Fantastic cook.  I love Ethiopian food but have only eaten it at restaurants.  Well done.

This is almost certainly in your wheelhouse. Each item is relatively easy to cook, but I made them over a few days since there were 4. Plus, the flavors meld together wonderfully if you cook at least a day before you eat. Especially for the doro wat (chicken). The injera will be much easier the next time, since I worked out the kinks. 

I used most of the berbere I made, and figured out that it's something I need to have handy now. The berbere and nit'r kibbe (ghee) will keep in the fridge for some time, so I recommend making a double batch of both. You'll thank me later !

Eoin

Injera looks like a Staffordshire oatcake, made from oat flour and only in a small area of North Staffordshire around Stoke on Trent. What kind of grain is Teff? The oat batter is really hard to work with / get right.



African food is reasonably well represented here, I can get Berbere in the supermarket!



Will have a go at Ethiopian soon!

blind99

mighty fine work there!!  i'm so danged hungry now...

nolaegghead

@Eoin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teff

caliking

Eoin said:

Injera looks like a Staffordshire oatcake, made from oat flour and only in a small area of North Staffordshire around Stoke on Trent. What kind of grain is Teff? The oat batter is really hard to work with / get right.

nola beat me to providing a link re: teff.

I'm not familiar with oatcakes, or with using oatmeal flour, but teff flour was surprisingly easy to work with. You can ferment at room temperature for 1-3 days at room temp (depending on how sour/tangy you want the injera to be), without it getting weird. Probably because its gluten-free. The consistency of the batter is important, but flour 1 cup + water 1 cup was just about right. I used teff:self-rising flour 1:1, but will add more teff next time. 

As for berbere, dry roasted and ground fresh at home is always mo bettah ! It seems there is some commonality between Indian and Ethiopian cooking, so I already had the ingredients I needed to make the spice mix. Plus, I wanted to tone the heat down for my 4yo. My mistake was not making enough of it, because I can think of many other uses for it now. 

smbishop

Wow!!!!

WeberWho

That looks amazing Cali! Wow!

smokingal

What a wonderful looking meal!  Nice work.

GrateEggspectations

Very, very cool. Looks great! Would love to reproduce this, but it looks quite labour-intensive. 

Had my first exposure to Ethiopian cuisine at Toukoul, in Brussels last year. Was very much a fan!

WhiteyQ

OUTSTANDING!  Going ethnic on the Egg is my next move. Thanks for the inspiration and excellent details/pics.

caliking

GrateEggspectations said:

Very, very cool. Looks great! Would love to reproduce this, but it looks quite labour-intensive. 

Had my first exposure to Ethiopian cuisine at Toukoul, in Brussels last year. Was very much a fan!

Thanks. 

It did  take some effort to put together for the first time, but shouldn’t take as much the next time. I also could have done with fewer items, but I was on a roll

The veg items cooked pretty quickly (30mins or less). Chicken took a little longer because of the added smoking step. The injera is dialed in now, so will be a much smoother process going forward. 

There are  tons of recipes available online, so go ahead and dive in!