Guess it's been awhile...and I've been to Ethiopia in the meantime. I didn't eat a huge amount of Ethiopian food while I was there, mainly because I was there for weeks by myself caring for Hayat, and I was determined not to take any chances with getting sick. But I did have fabulous doro wat and injera at the Hilton several times -- it was unbelievably good. The hotel serves both light-colored and darker injera, which were both delicious. Our driver, Dawit, told me that a lot of Ethiopians prefer the darker injera (which I believe is made with a different variety of t'eff) because it has more texture and flavor. I guess it's similar to whole grain vs. white bread.
This weekend we're having family over for our first homemade Ethiopian meal since Hayat got home nearly four months ago. Danielle asked in a comment if I had bought Marcus Samuelsson's book. I did buy it -- but I have yet to cook from it. When I got it the first thing I looked at was the injera recipe and was disappointed, because I was hoping for an authentic recipe that was less vague than the one I used. But the recipe for tibs wat looks good -- I may add that to Sunday's menu, too.
One thing I plan to do this time is to start my nit'ir qibe with ghee instead of butter. I noticed that the doro wat I had in Ethiopia had a much stronger clarified-butter flavor than I got using unsalted butter and then clarifying it. I'm going to make the doro wat and then transfer it to the crock pot to stew the chicken overnight. Britta has requested minchet abish, and I'm also planning to make yetakelt wat and gomen. I also have berbere and shiro powder we bought in Ethiopia, which I'm excited about using. I'll probably make a lentil dish as well, to have a little more variety for us non-meat-eaters. Me, I mean.
We still have a couple of kilos of Ethiopian green coffee beans. We've been roasting it and drinking it nearly every day, and are now spoiled beyond comprehension. Luckily, we can order organic green Ethiopian fair trade coffee beans online, so we won't have to go back to the bad old days of buying already roasted coffee.
Stay tuned for the injera challenge starting tomorrow...
