Themed Cuisine Week #1: The Ethiopian Feast

Since moving to California a little over two weeks ago, I've been focusing hard on the cultivation of my inner Californian - naturally, being a Californian entails the regular enjoyment of good, fresh food and wine ... right? Right.

In the first few days after my arrival - even without my kitchen having been delivered with the moving truck - I had started my first vegetable garden in [many] planters/pots on my patio alongside my new Weber. I also took a trip up to the Russian River Valley with my parents where we dutifully enjoyed much wine during our various vineyard visits and dutifully purchased 3 cases for our at-home enjoyment.

I located my new home using the following fundamental criteria: [very] nice kitchen, must be less than 10mi from work and less than 2mi from a farmer's market ... sure, and a place for a bed (details, details). My new home achieved all of these things and exceeded my expectations with a large patio area, the flood of sunlight through my large windows and skylights and my fantastic landlords with lemon trees that overfloweth (as well as producing plum and apricot trees).  See my other blog for pictures of my new place. I went to the farmer's market in Mountain View the first Sunday and was overjoyed to see fresh strawberries, spring peas, cheeses, eggs and mushrooms galore. I anticipate the 11mi round trip on my new road bike to be a recurring Sunday activity.

On the home front, my beautiful new kitchen and its copious sunlight has rekindled my passion to cook new and interesting foods ... well, sunlight and the fact that I'm no longer working 70hrs a week. My new position in the office is considerably less stressful and leaves me searching for challenges elsewhere in my day. So along with a 18mi R.T. bike commute, I decided to involve myself in some food experimentation. Besides attempting to maintain an edible garden, I devised a plan to cook "Themed Cuisine", focusing on a different food nationality a week at a time.

A package of berbere spice (and a sweet sale on London broil) inspired my Themed Cuisine Week #1: The Ethiopian Feast. For those of you who have never eaten at an Ethiopian restaurant: get on that. And look forward to partaking in one of the most satisfying and comforting home-cooked meals you'll ever enjoy. In almost every restaurant I've been to, I've been checked-up on by a cook who appears to be the mother of the family eating one table over - as if she had excused herself from her house-guests to whip me up a feast of love. Assuring her that the food is wonderful so visibly satisfies her that I feel like a "good girl", commended for enjoying it so thoroughly with happy eyes and a truly happy smile.

Traditionally, you share the meal with your table-mates in the form of little (or BIG) piles of fragrant stews atop a large, bubbled, crepe-like 'place mat' made of teff flour called injera. You use additional pieces of injera to pick up the food - there are no utensils. Main spices used in the different stews include: turmeric, ginger, cloves, coriander, cumin, allspice, cardamom and cinnamon. I decided to attempt some of my favorite dishes.

On the menu:

Abesha Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens)

Ye'atakilt Alick'A (Cabbage and Potato Stew)

Berbere-Rubbed Steak

Injera

Three hours of cooking actually kicked off with

 the preparation of an ingredient that will be used next month when I attempt Theme Cuisine Week: Morocco, Tagine Cook-Out (or some other, clever name). I took advantage of my access to my landlords' over-productive (perfectly-productive) lemon tree and decided to have my first go at canning. I sanitized the jars, bands and lids in boiling water for 15min, then shoved into them cut lemons doused in salt. Of the three jars, I spiced one with traditional flavorings including black pepper, coriander, clove, bay leaf and cinnamon.  After a month in the brine, the rind [supposedly] becomes mild and is chopped up in various Moroccan preparations. We shall see...

On to the main event! While the collards wat (stew) is one of my favorites, I couldn't find collard greens at my grocery store so had to settle for kale. Combined with Serrano chilies, grated ginger, red bell pepper and a lot of onion, the dish was beautifully flavored - not spicy. I was surprised how well the kale and red pepper retained their color, flavor and firmness through almost 20min of simmering. 

The cabbage wat is another favorite vegetarian dish of mine. A big onion and 4 sliced carrots sauteed for 15min created the sweet flavor base. Stained with turmeric and scented with cumin, the sauteed-for-40min cabbage and potatoes produced a creamy, sweet and smokey starch accompaniment for my feast. Next time I'll use twice as much cabbage and half as many potatoes.

I publicly admit that I chickened out on the protein front. My favorite Ethiopian dish is called Gored Gored - a traditional butter made with toasted spices (Niter Kibbeh) is mixed with raw strips of beef {drooool}. I caved ... and chose to use my new grill and an overnight berbere-rub over Googling how to buy beef I could eat raw. Meh. Happily, the steak was fantastic - this is the start of a beautiful relationship between me and the grill.

After 3 hours of prep-work and cooking, I was almost ready to forego an attempt at the injera. But for the sake of doing my first Themed Cuisine Week right, I mustered up enough [stove-to-] intestinal fortitude to whip up a batch of teff-less injera (made instead with whole wheat flour and club soda). It was pretty good - characteristically bubbled - but lacked the lovely sourness of the real thing. As you can see below, however, it served its purpose!

 

(What would I do without my two Dutch ovens???)

I believe my first themed week was a great success! I made enough to cover me for a whole week's worth of [large] dinners and the stews have gotten better with every passing night. In one of the next two weeks I think I'll attempt Indian food and get back into cheese-making with a Palak Paneer dish.