Posted on 04/08/2016 4:43:56 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
I worked for several years in a large office that included many people who were originally from other countries. We had people from India, the Philippines, China, Korea, and Africa; and our office potlucks were amazing.
I first tasted Ethiopian food at one of those parties, when a young woman made 'Siga Wot', a spicy beef stew; and 'Injera', the spongy, fermented sourdough bread that is used to scoop up other foods, and sometimes used as a sort of 'plate'.
To make Siga Wot, you must first have Berbere, a spicy seasoning used in many Ethiopian dishes. There are many slightly different versions of it - some include Fenugreek, which I'm not crazy about and leave out. (I believe that Berbere may be the same type of seasoning that shows up in many Ethiopian recipes as "chow".)
Here is the Epicurious recipe for Berbere:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/ethiopian-spice-mix-berbere-104015
And here is a recipe for the Siga Wot (there are many versions, just as with any of our classic American dishes; this is just one):
http://www.african-food-recipes.com/ethiopian-siga-wat.html
The narration of the following video appears to be in Amharic, but it gives you an idea of the technique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR5o0lpI-bw
This is best served with real Injera; I haven't made the bread myself yet, but we were recently in a local Seventh Day Adventist shop and they had Teff flour, so I bought some and will try making it soon. (Be sure that you get Teff *flour*, and not the whole grain. The grain (the plant is actually a grass) is so fine that you would have difficulty trying to grind it into flour. The brand we purchased is Bob's Red Mill; but it is also sold in bulk in health food stores.
Here is the Exploratorium's recipe for Injera; it's a recipe that uses some whole wheat flour, which many Ethiopians who have come to America have adapted to include, probably because until very recently Teff was not widely available in the US, and mixing it with other flour made the Teff that they did have go further. But you can also find recipes made entirely of Teff; which is what I'm going to try.
https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-injera.html
Lastly, one of the most fascinating things to me about Ethiopia is Lalibela, and its rock-cut churches:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalibela
-JT
A nice summer dish....cool and inviting.
It did change dramatically w/ her takeover. I still have some old copies. Maybe someday I will have time to peruse them. A friend has gotten a subscription to House & Garden for many years & they have wonderful recipes & cooking ideas. Yeah Bon Appetite is trend city. Sigh.
Bon Appetit used to be the downscale Gourmet and was much more readable. I occasionally buy BBC Good Food which is very nice and they often have imperial has well as metric measures. I love reading about Great Britain.
I’m also thinking of buying some Gourmets from the 60s and 70s on ebay. That was when I first knew it as a kid and loved it.
Just arrange crisp endive leaves on a plate. Add a spoonful of your favorite salad.
This is roquefort, halved grapes, and chopped radishes dressed w/ a bit of pistachio oil.
These look great. I am going to make them today as I too have a bunch of teff in my cupboard.
I totally agree Ms M. re Ruth Reichl.
I hate the PC stuff that is going on with so many food magazines. I see Gourmet is still putting out those magazine “specials” now and then.
BA and F&W are really getting hard to read. Last one I saw had black background pages that made the recipe itself very hard to see. I don’t see BA and F&W being around too much longer either.
I enjoy the Australian “Delicious” magazine, but it is hard to find and it has become more PC each year.
I like the endive. A meal is no fun without something crispy/FRESH. Party food/potlucks seem to be short on that in my experience.
-JT
Gorgeous looking salad Liz. Thanks.
Glad you liked it. Nice finger-food appy-—no drips.
I used to have a subscription to the UK Delicious. Very expensive and didn’t convert measures. BBC Food was better. Its website is good, too. The Guardian has a great food section and I love reading the Brits getting upset when they feature American dishes. They hate being told there is more to our food than hamburgers and what they ludicrously call “hot dog sandwiches.”
Both Bon Appetit and F&W have these ridiculous layouts now. Impossible to read! It’s as if Gwynith Paltrow has taken over the publishing world. Even today, trying to read a recipe for stuffed calamari in the Sunday NY Times, it prefaced it with a sob story about prejudice against Italian-Americans. It posited - I’m not making this up - that some I-A will not eat garlic for fear they will be discriminated against. I asked my very Italian-American husband if this was true and he just rolled his eyes.
Very nice!
I love the BBC food website....great recipes.
It appears to me that the Australian version of Delicious no longer exists. It is now UK Delicious. It is very expensive so I stopped buying it. Their site is very nice. When we moved, I brought these magazines, all as well as BBC Food and their other magazine called Olive.
The BBC site is just great-so many great chefs like Rick Stein. I so enjoy trying all the recipes over at BBC and the Guardian.
I am a big fan of Yotam Ottolenghi. I think he and Sami Tamini really changed the perception that British cooking was “bad”.
We have a large vegetable and herb garden growing. I also brought cuttings from some of our fruit trees from Northern CA and they are also thriving here in the South.
British food has really come into its own. I was reading Clarissa Dickson Wright’s hilarious memoir “Riffling Thru My Drawers” last night. She talks so splendidly about British and Scotch beef and how to hang a partridge and all that enjoyable nonsense that makes reading such things a joy. I’ve also learned all about hunting and coursing and other illegal activities for which she was arrested a number of times.
I tend to be drawn to traditional English food rather than the modern, hip versions but love to read the recipes and get to know the cooks and chefs. While I don’t enjoy his recipes, I will read anything published by Nigel Slater. A fantastic writer about food and the memory of food.
Check out Felicity Cloake over at the Guardian. She reminds me of Melissa Clark’s stuff at the New York Times.
Did you see the ridiculous stuffed octopus column in the Magazine section today?
Thanks for all the great book tips.
Have you read “Hometown Appetites”-the story of Clementine Paddleford? She was a food writer who wrote about regional American food from the 20’s to the 60’s.
The book has some great old recipes, plus lighthearted comments about American cuisine in those years.
Do you remember Cooking With Delia’s TV show? Her food was pretty basis but her cookware, servers, and presentations were so charming.
She cooked in an English country kitchen which I assumed was her own kitchen......and out back through the sunny windows were green fields and flowers.
I thought sure food tv would snap her up. I think she retired...but her reruns could be used.
No, while I’m very familiar with Delia, I’ve never seen one of her shows. Were they broadcast here?
She’s famous for being basic. And they say her recipes are impeccable. Whenever I’ve visited an English home, there has always been one of her books on the shelf. I have one of her cake books although I’ve never really used it.
No, I think I would remember that extraordinary name! I’ll google it. I love regional American food books. And the older, the better.
Anybody know the great John Thorne? He lives in Maine and writes the most terrific books on food.
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