I was in the mood for Ethiopian food but really had not been in an Ethiopian restaurant since my friends Judith and Ray took me to one 25 years ago on Telegraph Ave. The best feature of this cuisine is the spongy fermented flat bread that accompanies the meal, enjira made out of hard indigenous wheat called teff. It can be used as a plate w/food and condiments on top or to sop sauce.
Ejira should be started a few hours ahead so it can ferment or even a day ahead and left in refrigerator overnight and allow to rise in the afternoon. Enjira: If you have sour dough, add 1 cup+ 3 cups of water 2 cups of any mixture of flours, if not add 1/2 tsp. yeat to4 cups warm flour, and any mixture you want. (wholewheat, rye, rice flour, unbleached white) Allow to rise a few hours or overnight to properly sour, can be refrigerated overnight and taken out 2-3hrs before using. Cook on hot griddle oiled and stack, can be reheated later to serve.Calling Ejira a bread is really overstating it , it is a fermented spongy pancakee, the size of a dinner plate or larger. Food can be wrapped in it, or torn dipped in sauce. Don’t be intimidated by enjira, it is a fermented pancake batter and fun to serve, can be made ahead and reheated.
| Doro Wot (Ethiopian spicy stew) | |
|---|---|
| 4 large chicken legs including tighs | |
| 2 large onions, sliced | 2T. clarified butter |
| 6 garlic cloves chopped | 1 T. cardamon, 2T.fresh ginger |
| 2 cinnamon sticks, | 1 tsp. fenugreek, |
| 1 T.coriander seeds | 1/2 grated nutmeg(whole) |
| 5 chiles de arbol or substitute for the amount of heat you are comfortable with. | |
| 1 sweet red, 1 large carrot , 1 cup chopped tomatoes, | 2med. yams sliced |
Four whole large chicken legs and tights. Slowly saute in clarified butter or oil, rendering fat until golden and crisp.pour half of fat out of skillet and add two large sliced onions, lifting legs off, adding garlic when onions are translucent. Add one cup of chopped fresh tomatoes. add 2 cups broth or water . Cover and simmer until chichen almost falls of the bone (this will depend on age of chicken), add sliced carrots 30mins. before end of cooking time and in the last 20 mins sliced yams. Garnish w/hard boiled eggs , 1/2 per person .I like to serve the ejira on top of large plate so that stew can be wrapped in it but this can prove overwhelming to those who prefer fork and knife. It might be good to cook a whole hen and shred into sauce so that the ejira can be eaten like a huge burrito.!
Now I suspect that when cooks give recipe for simplicity sake or more devious motives omit one or two ingridients or steps. Instead of fresh tomatoes I added roma tomatoes that cooked slowly in 250f oven, w/garlic and red peppers in olive oil until they secreted their sugar, then slightly blended. A spice that I used was Thai Red Curry paste . (they come in plastic tubs,
in yello,red, green colours.) the ingridients are: chili peppers, lemon grass, ginger,garlic I used 2T. I’m also leaving the salt out to the discretion of the cook.
