Our Ethiopian Dinner Experiment

I figured it was time to try experimenting with Ethiopian food! Many years ago, I found a recipe for Injera in a cookbook. I had no ties with Ethiopia at the time but was interested in trying different recipes. So we did. I had no idea that one day we would be eating it as a regular part of our diet!

I had a few other recipes I also wanted to try and they included Doro Wat, a vegetable dish -whose name I do not know, and the spice Berbere.

I began with making the spice. There were twelve spices that I needed to put in the mixture. I even had a chance to use the pestle and mortar, which is a tool that Ethiopian women will use. I needed to use this since my fennel was in seed form and I needed to grind it to powder. Once all these spices are mixed together this is a common spice to add to many Ethiopian dishes.

Berbere Spice

This is a bowl of my new spice! It is a mixture of cardemon, coriander, fennel spice, cloves, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper, nutmeg, allspice, nutmeg (and two more I have forgotten).

After I made the spice, I began making the vegetable dish. It was made with cabbage, onion, carrots, potatoes, garlic, berbere, and chicken broth. Once it was made I couldn't resist having a bowl of it for lunch (though it was for dinner). It was delicious!

Below is the doro wat! It was delicious!!! It is made with stewing beef, onions, berbere, red wine, a few other spices, and then it just simmered for about four hours!

Following this I made a lentil recipe and it was another tasty one. It was not a favourite at dinner time, but they will learn to enjoy it. *smile* We have to acquire new tastes!

The last recipe I made was the injera. These were easy to make and since I didn't have the traditional Ethiopian grain, Teff, I had to make do with whole wheat and white flour. They did turn out very well, though!

Injera

When I brought the food to the table the children were enchanted with the idea of eating with their fingers.

He "Started" With A Gusto...

With Ethiopian food, you serve the injera as a 'plate'. The other dishes are served onto the injera and then some additional injera is served in rolled pieces on the side. These rolled pieces are used in place of forks and spoons. I quickly realized that I had not made enough injera!! Soon we were all using our fingers to finish the rest of our meal without much injera to scoop up the toppings!

Getting Rather Messy

One boy's response to running out of his rolls of injera? "I've eaten all my forks." He was told to start eating his plate! *smile*

When Ray ran out of injera he went and got himself a roll. When he arrived back in the dining room he said in surfer boy speech, "Dude. African hot dog." *grin*

Ray's African Hot Dog

Later .... Not Impressed

It's going to take a little time getting the young ones accustomed to the new flavours and eating with their fingers! The big boys did well and enjoyed the challenge. Believe me the comments were flying!!

I'm Not Messing Up MY Hands

Overall, I was very impressed. It didn't take me too long to make the recipes, they tasted quite good. Actually, they are very good, but we have to get used to certain things like lentils! I will be making other recipes, so that when the girls come home we won't look like totally alien to them! *smile*