Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Ground Lamb Stew

Recipe Source: Mesfin, D. J.  Exotic Ethiopian Cooking.  Ethiopian Cookbook Enterprises, Falls Church, 2004 p. 108. 

I feel kind of funny calling this an Ethiopian dish, despite the source.  My biggest complaint about this book is all the ingredients that I simply cannot find here.  Sometimes, as in the "bishop's weed" mentioned in the original version of this recipe, I simply omit it.  (Someone is going to let me know that "bishop's weed" is just another term for cilantro, aren't they?  Fine, fine.  I can take it.)  And sometimes, in the case of the awaze called for in the original, I have to make substitutions.  Awaze is just red pepper paste.  The book has a recipe for awaze that calls for 15 pounds of New Mexico chilies.  Really.  If I could find New Mexico chilies in such quantity for a non-exorbitant price, I would cheerfully make it.  Since I can't, I substituted a Korean red pepper paste that I happened to have on hand.  It didn't have all the herbs and spices included in the original, and I probably should have found some way of approximating them, but I didn't. 

I halved the original recipe, since there are only two of us.  I also changed out ground beef for ground lamb.  The price was the same that day at Whole Foods, at least to get it in the quantity I needed, and I really prefer the flavor of lamb.  I reduced the amount of butter still more, and I omitted the spicing of the butter.  While I'd like to try the spiced butter sometime, we don't tend to use butter in most of our cooking so it would probably go to waste.  I used fresh ginger in place of the powdered ginger and I increased the amounts of both ginger and cardamom.  I also made a few procedural changes to avoid setting off the smoke alarm. 

So ultimately, my ground lamb stew bears almost no resemblance to the original zigni wet that I started with.  It's still probably the fastest stew you'll ever make, and while I couldn't call it "hot" despite the label on the jar of pepper paste it was still full of flavor.  Serve this up with some bread to dip in the juices. 

Ground Lamb Stew (serves 2; approx. $2.66/serving)

1/2 pound ground lamb

1 red onion, chopped

1/4 cup Korean hot red pepper paste

1 cup water

1/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon cardamom

2 tablespoons minced ginger

Kosher salt to taste

Equipment:

• Large saute pan or wok

1. Melt the butter in the wok.
2. Add the onions and saute until browned and softened.
3. Add the red pepper paste, water and a little bit of salt. 
4. Sprinkle the ground lamb into the pan, stirring. 
5. Add the cardamom and ginger.
6. Cook until the meat is done.
7. Serve. 

Recipe: Doro Wett (Ethiopian chicken stew)

Recipe Source: Samuelsson, Marcus.  The Soul of a New Cuisine.  John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2006 p. 245

I can still remember my first taste of Ethiopian food.  It was at Addis Red Sea in Boston's South End, and what a delight it was.  I don't remember the names of all the dishes I had and I probably couldn't pronounce some of them anyway.  I remember kitfo.  I remember some greens that were amazingly tasty.  I even remember a cabbage dish I liked.  I remember the injera bread, a wonderful, spongy flatbread that can double as eating utensils.  Eating utensils that taste good! 

Anyway, a few weeks ago, my local Whole Foods actually had some teff flour.  I haven't seen it there before and I haven't noticed it since, but teff is the grain used to make the injera bread.  I picked it up and was very excited to make it.  I selected this traditional recipe to go with it.  Unfortunately, the injera bread just didn't work out, probably for procedural reasons (ie, I screwed up.)  But the stew itself came out just fine. 

I made a few changes.  I increased the garlic, naturally, and the ginger.  I didn't have spiced butter and we don't use enough butter to make it worthwhile to make up a batch, but the option to use plain old unsalted butter was given so I took it.  I used duck stock made from the carcass of a duck we haven't posted yet in place of chicken stock, because it was available and free.  I added a tablespoon of Aleppo pepper, to give a little extra heat and to make up for not using spiced butter.  If you can't find Aleppo pepper, use cayenne.  Finally, I omitted the hard-boiled eggs at the end.  I know they're traditional but I'm not sure what they add to the recipe and my husband doesn't care for hard boiled eggs.  The result was a remarkably mild, flavorful stew with just enough heat to be comforting.  The liquid is not supposed to bind together like a European sauce - it is supposed to be soupy! 

Doro Wett (serves 6; approx. $2.29/serving)

2 red onions, diced

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 whole cloves

4 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

2 tablespoons minced ginger

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 1/2 cups duck stock, divided

One chicken, about 4 pounds, cut up into 10 pieces, wings discarded or reserved for another  use

1/4 cup dry red wine

3 tablespoons lime juice (juice of one lime)

Equipment:

• Dutch oven

1. Combine the onions, a pinch of salt and half the butter in the Dutch oven over low heat. 
2. Cook until the onions are golden, about 15 minutes.
3. Add the remaining butter, cardamom, pepper, cloves garlic ginger, chili powder and Aleppo pepper.  Cook until the onions are soft and begin to take on the color of the spices, about 10 minutes.
4. Add 2 cups duck stock and the chicken legs and thighs.  Bring to a simmer and simmer 15 minutes.
5. Add the remaining stock and the wine.  Return to a simmer and simmer 10 - 20 minutes.
6. Add the chicken breasts.  Simmer another 20 minutes.
7. Add the lime juice.  Simmer another 5 minutes.
8. Serve.