Catching up on the Weekend – Ethiopian Epicurean

Guess this entry will work as a bit of an overview for the last couple of days. A few meals have been had!

Friday night, took the lazy route and ate out after overtime at work – got some mushroom pho at the creatively named Pho, which did me nicely.

Saturday we had a friend over for dinner, and tried out the lasagne recipe featured on last Monday’s post. Satisfying; that tahineh sauce is really showing its potency. Next time we make it, though, I’m thinking we’ll put some tinfoil over the top from the get-go. Without the cheese to provide an insulating top layer, that first sheet of noodles gets a bit over-cooked.

Not as dry as it looks.

Sunday, it was time for the long-awaited Ethiopian.

Sufficient.

Unfortunately, the injera was not the unqualified success I was hoping for. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it’s not quite there. Trouble started early – it seems our flat is too clean, and even a day and a half in, I wasn’t seeing any wild yeast action. The housemate bakes quite a bit, so I nicked some baker’s yeast from the cupboard and hoped that that would get me a good enough flavour in the time remaining. It certainly started the froth going, and things were smelling fine within a short while. The recipe I tried out called for a 3 to 1 ratio plain flour to teff, though it did say feel free to experiment depending on your tastes. Wasn’t able to achieve the characteristic texture when I went to actually cook, but there were a few things working against me there – improper cooking implement with only a non-stick frying pan, improper baker with only a novice me. Truth be told, I didn’t go into it expecting it be perfect the first time, though I was a bit bummed by the results. Ah well, have another batch fermenting as I write. Added some yeast off the bat, and switched the ratio – 3 parts teff to one plain flour. From what I’ve read, the traditional way to do it is all-teff, so perhaps this will get me a bit closer. Experimentation!

Lookin’ good – if only it had stayed that way.

For the actual, you know, food, I fell back on a pair of recipes I’ve been using for years (not really the point of this month, I know, but I thought the injera was experiment enough). I first came across them in an article from the Toronto Star, which, as luck would have it, is still available in digital. There are a few recipes there – my go to are the yemesir wot and the tikil gomen, as below –

Yemesir Wot

3/4 cup (185 mL) canola oil

1-1/2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

1/2 cup (125 mL) berbere spice blend, or to taste

1 tbsp (15 mL) puréed fresh, peeled ginger

2 tsp (10 mL) puréed fresh garlic

1 cup (250 mL) dried red lentils, washed

3 cups (750 mL) water + more if needed

1/2 tsp (2 mL) fine sea salt, or to taste

The article recommends you buy a pre-made ‘berbere spice blend,’ but I’ve never done that. The first hit on a google search pulls up this recipe from epicurious, which has always stood me in good stead –

• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
• 1/2 cup ground dried New Mexico chiles
• 1/4 cup paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Depending on the chilli-type you grab for that 1/2 cup, this is going to end up one scorching spice mix. Masochist that I am, I’ve always leaned in to it, and am happy to report that even at its most searing, the other flavours still push through. I can understand if the wide range of spices is a bit daunting, but the amounts specified will leave you with plenty extra blend (honestly, depending on how hot I’ve made the mix, I use shy of half the requested berbere) and you can use it for more than just this dish.

Tikil Gomen

1/2 cup (125 mL) canola oil

1-1/2 medium yellow onions, halved, thinly sliced

3 large carrots, peeled thinly sliced on diagonal

2 white boiling potatoes, peeled, cut in 1-inch cubes

1 tbsp (15 mL) puréed fresh garlic

1 tsp (5 mL) pureéd fresh, peeled ginger

1/4 tsp (1 mL) each: turmeric, fine sea salt, black pepper

1 cup (250 mL) water

8 to 10 cups (2 to 2.5L) chopped, cored green cabbage

1 jalapeno, chopped with seeds

As you can see from the photo, I’ve swapped out green cabbage for red this time round. I also usually at least double the amount of ginger and turmeric, if not fourfold, and throw in some cumin for good measure.

As an aside, the ‘canola oil’ specified in the recipes is a type of rapeseed oil, developed in Canada back in ’70’s, with a slightly different fatty acid character. Depending on where you’re from, you’ve probably come across it before, but thought it might be worth mentioning to avoid any confusion.

Steamy

 

Tonight’s dinner wasn’t anything too special – a black bean stir fry with rice noodles. Had a head of broccoli that needed using, and wanted to polish off the last of the tofu from Thursday’s post. Fresh ginger and some lemon grass gave it a brighter colour, improving on what was basically just a store-bought sauce. Easy Monday fare.

So that’s about it for the past couple days.
I’m about to go make a potato and turnip mash. Trying to make some room in the crisper for fresh veg (we get a weekly delivery through Able&Cole – all organic, and it provides a bit of variety) but, as I learned last week, it would be nice to have some carbs ready to hand. Rather than butter, an obvious no-no, I’m going to use some Flora Dairy Free. It’s remarkable how difficult it was to find a margarine without any dairy. I swear, back in my day…

Any rate – mashed potatoes. It’s what’s for dessert.