Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Ground Beef Stew (Minchet Abish)

Recipe Source: Mesfin, D. J. Exotic Ethiopian Cooking. Ethiopian Cookbook Enterprises of Falls Church VA, Falls Church, 2004 p. 125.

I had originally intended to serve this dish on a Sunday. It was just going to be us, and since we've been trying to limit our red meat to once per week (not always successfully, it must be said) I thought it would be a nice start to the week. Plans changed. We decided that we would invite some friends to decorate our Christmas tree with us. Those friends really can't handle spice. The husband is particularly sensitive. I decided that we would do just fine to eat this on Saturday night instead – it was just filling enough that we didn't feel tempted to load up on hors d'oeuvres at the party we attended that night, and since I made it well ahead of time it was no trouble at all.

I made a few changes to this. You may be surprised to note that using lamb for beef, which is what I would normally do, is not among them. I had to go to the Large Chain Supermarket That Shall Not Be Named near my house that week, and their lamb selection was dismal and did not include anything that would be suitable for this dish. I did, however, halve the recipe as there were only two of us eating it. I reduced the proportion of butter, though, figuring that using that much butter would cause my husband no end of discomfort. I used chili powder (X-Tra Hot, of course) for the berbere, since berbere is hard to come by these days and the cost of making it at home according to the recipe in this book was prohibitive. I also added cumin and coriander to the mix, just because they seemed to work well here. The result was a delicious and satisfying dish that makes a wonderful make-ahead meal.

Minchet Abish (serves 4; approx. $3.04/serving)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ground beef

2 red onions, finely chopped

½ cup chili powder

1 cup water

½ stick butter

Kosher salt to taste

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon chickpea flour

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

½ cup red wine

¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek

Equipment:

• Large sauté pan

1. Heat the oil in the pan.
2. Add the onions, salt and fenugreek. Sauté until browned.
3. Add the meat. Sauté until relatively dry.
4. Add the butter. Cook until the butter is melted.
5. Add the ginger and wine. Cook 2 minutes.
6. Add the chickpea flour and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
7. Add the remaining spices. Simmer until the meat is soft and tender.
8. Serve. I garnished with a little chopped fresh cilantro out of habit, but you don't need to.

Recipe: Mildly Spiced Lentils (Yekik Alich’a)

Recipe Source: Mesfin, D. J. Exotic Ethiopian Cooking. Ethiopian Cookbook Enterprises, Falls Church, 2004 p. 191

This dish had been on my menu for weeks – literally weeks – before I made it. I'm not sure why it kept getting pushed back because I clearly wanted very much to make it. For whatever reason it just kept not happening. Eventually though I made it and I'm really glad that I did. It was delicious and even the non-vegetarians that week really enjoyed it. If you make it with olive oil, as is done here, you can serve it either hot or cold. If you choose to use butter – I didn't – serve it only hot.

I made a few changes as usual. I reduced the amount of oil by a lot, which may make it somewhat less authentic but makes the dish so much healthier. I increased the garlic and the ginger as well. When the option was given I used red lentils because I had so many of them on hand.

Yekik Alich'a (serves 6; approx. $1.14/serving)

2 cups red lentils, washed

4 cups water

2 red onions, chopped

8 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons minced ginger

8 cloves garlic, crushed

4 jalapeno peppers, sliced

1 pinch kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh-ground cubeb

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan
• Colander
• Bowl
• Sauté pan or wok

1. Combine the lentils and the water in the medium saucepan and boil until soft. Red lentils cook up pretty fast, so this shouldn't take an obscene amount of time. Skim the surface if need be.
2. Set the colander over the bowl and drain the lentils into it. Reserve the water.
3. In the sauté pan, heat the oil and add the onions. Season with a pinch of kosher salt.
4. Cook the onions until softened. Add the lentils, garlic, ginger, cubeb and reserved cooking water. Simmer, stirring frequently but gently, 20 – 30 minutes.
5. Transfer to the cooking vessel. Top with the sliced jalapenos and serve.

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.