Ethiopia

Typical Ethiopian food

Geographic setting and environment

Located in East Africa, Ethiopia (formerly called Abyssinia) covers an area of ​​approximately 1,127,127 square kilometers. Comparatively, the area occupied by Ethiopia is slightly less than twice the size of the state of Texas.

Ethiopia is a country of geographical contrasts, ranging from 125 meters below sea level in the Denakil Depression to more than 4,600 meters above sea level in the mountainous regions. It contains a variety of different topographic zones: the Great Rift Valley runs the entire length of the country in a northeast-southwest direction; the Ethiopian Highlands are marked by mountain ranges; the Somali Plateau (Ogaden) covers the entire southeastern section of the country; and the Denakil Desert reaches to the Red Sea and the coastal foothills of Eritrea. Ethiopia’s largest lake, Lake T’ana, is the source of the Blue Nile River.

The central plateau has a moderate climate with minimal seasonal temperature variation. The average minimum during the coldest season is 6°C, while the average maximum rarely exceeds 26°C. Temperature variations in the lowlands are much greater, and the heat in the desert and coastal areas of the Red Sea is extreme, with occasional rises of 60°C.

History and food

Ethiopia was under Italian military control during a period (1935-46) when Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was in power. Except for that time, Ethiopian culture has been very little influenced by other countries. Ethiopia’s mountainous terrain prevented its neighbors from exerting much influence over the country and its customs. Exotic spices were introduced to Ethiopian cuisine by traders traveling the trade routes between Europe and the Far East.

Ethiopia went through a period of recurring drought and civil war between 1974 and 1991. In 1991 a new government took over and civil tensions eased somewhat as the coastal territory was separated from the inland government, creating the new nation of Eritrea.

Ethiopian cuisine is very spicy. In addition to flavoring food, spices also help preserve meat in a country where refrigeration is rare.

Berbere is the name of the special spicy paste that Ethiopians use to preserve and flavor food. According to Ethiopian culture, the woman with the best berbere has the best chance of winning a good husband.

Kategna

Ingredients

  • Large flatbread (flour tortilla, lavosh, or other type of “wraparound” bread)
  • 3 tablespoons Cajun spices
  • 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
  • ½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 250°F.
  2. Mix the garlic powder, spices, and butter to make a paste.
  3. Spread a thin layer on a piece of flatbread.
  4. Place the bread on a cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, until crisp.

typical ethiopia kategna bread

Berbere (Spice Paste) twoportions

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
  • ½ teaspoon ground coriander
  • ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
  • 2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon garlic, finely minced
  • 2 tablespoons of salt
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 2 cups of paprika
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes (use more for a spicier paste)
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1½ cups of water
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Process

  1. Measure ginger, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek seeds, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice in a large skillet.
  2. Toast the spices over medium-high heat for 1 minute, shaking the pan or stirring with a wooden spoon constantly.
  3. Let cool for 10 minutes.
  4. Put the spices, onion, garlic, salt and vinegar in a blender and blend on high speed until the spices form a paste.
  5. Toast paprika, red pepper flakes, and black pepper in large skillet 1 minute, stirring constantly.
  6. Slowly add the water to the pan, and then add the vegetable oil.
  7. Put the mixture from the blender in the pan too, and cook everything together for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.
  8. Put the paste in a jar and refrigerate.

berbere typical spices of ethiopia

Niter Kibbeh (Spice Butter)

Ingredients

  • 4 teaspoons fresh ginger, finely grated
  • 1½ teaspoons of turmeric tea
  • ¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds
  • One cinnamon stick, one inch long.
  • ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 2 pounds of salted butter
  • 1 small yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 3 tablespoons garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Process

  1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat.
  2. Bring the butter to a light boil.
  3. When the surface is covered with a white foam, add the rest of the ingredients, including the onion and garlic.
  4. Reduce heat to low and cook uncovered for about 45 minutes. Do not stir again. Milk solids will form at the bottom of the pan and should be cooked until golden brown. The butter will be transparent.
  5. Strain the mixture through several layers of cheese cloth placed in a strainer.
  6. Discard any milk solids left in the cheese cloth.
  7. Serve on toast, crackers, or use in cooking.
  8. Store the spiced butter in a jar, covered, in the refrigerator (where it can be kept up to 3 months).

Niter Kibbeh (Spice Butter)

Ethiopian food

The national dish of Ethiopia is wot, a spicy stew. Wot can be made with beef, lamb, chicken, goat, or even lentils or chickpeas, but it always contains spicy berbere. Alecha is a less spicy stew seasoned with green ginger. For most Ethiopians, who are Orthodox Christians or Muslims, eating pork is prohibited. Ethiopian food is eaten with the hands, using pieces of a type of flatbread called injera. Diners tear off a piece of injera, then use it to scoop or pinch morsels of food from a large shared platter. A soft white cheese called labis popular. Although Ethiopians rarely use sugar in their cooking, honey is occasionally used as a sweetener. An Ethiopian delicacy is injera wrapped around fresh honeycomb with young bee larvae still inside. Injera is usually made with teff, a type of grain grown in Ethiopia. The bread dough is fermented for several days in a process similar to that used to make sourdough bread. Usually enough bread is made at one time for three days. Small fried snacks called dabo kolo are also popular.

Injera (Ethiopian Bread)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup buckwheat pancake mix
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1 cup carbonated water
  • ½ teaspoon of salt
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 2 butter spoons

Process

  1. Combine buckwheat pancake mix, all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder in medium bowl.
  2. Add the egg and carbonated water, and stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
  3. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan until bubbly.
  4. Pour in about 2 tablespoons of batter and cook for 2 minutes on each side until the bread is browned on both sides.
  5. Carefully remove the bread from the pan and place it on a plate.
  6. Repeat, stacking the finished loaves on the plate to cool.

Injera (Ethiopian Bread)

Lab (Ethiopian Cheese)

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces (1 pound) cottage cheese
  • 4 tablespoons plain yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
  • 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Process

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Place a piece of clean cheesecloth (or a very clean kitchen towel) in a strainer and pour the mixture into the strainer to drain off any extra liquid.
  3. Gather the cheese cloth to make a sack and tie it with a clean string or thread.
  4. Suspend from faucet over sink. (Another option is to suspend the sack over a bowl by tying the string to a cabinet doorknob.)
  5. Allow to drain for several hours until the mixture has the consistency of smooth cream cheese.
  6. Serve with crackers or injera.

Lab (Ethiopian Cheese)

Kitfo (Raw meat with spices) 6portions

Ingredients

  • ⅛ cup niter kebbeh (spiced butter, see recipe above)
  • ¼ cup onions, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons green pepper, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon ginger, ground
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic, finely minced
  • ¼ teaspoon cardamom, ground
  • ½ tablespoon of lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon berbere (see recipe above)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 pound ground beef

Process

  1. Melt the niter kebbeh in a large skillet.
  2. Add the onion, green pepper, chili powder, ginger, garlic and cardamom and cook for 2 minutes while stirring.
  3. Let cool for 15 minutes.
  4. Add the lemon juice, barberry and salt.
  5. Add the raw meat and serve.

Kitfo (Raw meat with spices)

Dabo Kolo (Small Fried Bites)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon of salt
  • 2 tablespoons of honey
  • ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ¼ cup oil

Process

  1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Slowly add water to create a stiff dough.
  3. Knead on a lightly floured board for about 5 minutes. (To knead, flatten the dough, fold it in half. Then turn the dough about a quarter turn and fold it again. Keep turning and folding the dough.)
  4. Scoop out pieces of dough to fit in the palm of your hand.
  5. Press or roll out (using a rolling pin) into a strip about ½-inch thick on a floured countertop.
  6. Cut the strip into ½-inch by ½-inch squares.
  7. Cook in skillet over medium heat until light brown on all sides.

Dabo Kolo (Small Fried Bites)

Food for religious and festive celebrations

About half of the Ethiopian population is Orthodox Christian. During Lent, the forty days before the Christian holiday of Easter, Orthodox Christians are prohibited from eating any animal products (not meat, cheese, milk, or butter). Instead they eat dishes made from beans, lentils and chick peas called mitin shiro which is a mixture of beans and berbere. This is made with lentils, peas, split peas, chick peas, and peanuts. The beans are boiled, roasted, ground and combined with berbere. This mixture is made into a vegetarian food by adding vegetable oil and then shaped into a fish or egg; it is eaten cold. You can also eat a vegetable seaweed during Lent.

During festive times such as marriage feasts, kwalima, a kind of meat sausage, is eaten. This sausage is made with beef, onions, pepper, ginger, cumin, basil, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and turmeric. It is smoked and dried.

Aterkek Alicha (vegetable stew) 6portions

Ingredients

  • 1 cup vegetable oil (used as ¼ cup and ¾ cup)
  • 2 cups red onion, chopped
  • 2 cups yellow split peas
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
  • 3 cups of water

Process

  1. Pour the ¼ oil into a large pot and place over medium heat.
  2. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion is golden brown.
  3. Add the ¾ cup of oil and add all the other ingredients.
  4. Cook over medium heat until vegetables are tender.
  5. Serve with injera made with vegetable oil instead of butter.

Aterkek Alicha (vegetable stew)

Some food words from Ethiopia:

  • berbere: A paste, composed of hot spices, used to flavor many foods.
  • injera: A spongy, fermented bread that tastes similar to sourdough bread and resembles a large flour tortilla or large, thin pancakes
  • kitfo: Raw meat dish.
  • teff: A grain used to make teff flour, the base of the national bread, injera
  • tib: Generic name for cooked meat dishes
  • wot: Spicy stews. If a dish has “wot” in its name, it will be spicy, while “alecha” means mild.

Mealtime customs

Before eating, Ethiopians wash their hands under water that is poured from a jug into a container. Then a prayer or grace is said. An appetizer of a bowl of curd and whey can be served. At the beginning of the meal, the injera is placed directly on a round woven basket table called a mesob. Different types of stews such as wot (spicy) and alecha (mild) are placed on top of the injera.

Sometimes the meal doesn’t begin until the head of the house or the guest of honor tears off a piece of bread for each person at the table. The right hand is used to pick up a piece of injera, wrap some meat and vegetables inside, and eat. As a sign of respect, an Ethiopian may find the best piece of food on the table and put it in the mouth of his guest. Ethiopians drink tej (a honey wine) and tella (beer) with their meals. Coffee, however, the country’s most popular drink, is usually drunk at the end of a meal. Ethiopia is considered the birthplace of coffee. Coffee is one of the main exports.

The coffee ceremony, or buna, begins with the throwing of some freshly cut herbs in a corner of the room. Incense is lit in this corner next to a charcoal burner, where the charcoal glows and is ready to roast the coffee. All the guests watch as the raw green coffee is roasted. The host shakes the roasting tray to prevent the beans from burning and to release the wonderful aroma of the beans. The beans are ground with a mortar and pestle (a bowl and a pounding tool). A pot is filled with water, fresh coffee grounds are added and the pot is placed on the charcoal burner until the water boils. Coffee is then served, often with a sprig of rue (a bitter-tasting herb with a small yellow flower). The same beans can be used for two more batches of coffee.

Politics, economics and nutrition

About half of Ethiopia’s population is classified as undernourished by the World Bank. This means that they are not getting adequate nutrition in their diet. Of children under five, about 48% are underweight and nearly 64% are stunted (short for their age).

Wars, drought, political unrest and demographic pressures in the 1970s and early 1980s have all taken their toll on the health of Ethiopians. Hundreds of thousands of people died during a famine (widespread food shortage) in 1973, and as many as a million may have died between 1983 and 1985. Ethiopian coffee farmers produce one of the largest coffee crops in Africa; however, food crops are produced primarily by small farmers, known as subsistence farmers, who try to grow just enough food to feed their family. These farmers are not as successful. Ethiopians continue to suffer from malnutrition and a general lack of food. Sanitation (toilets and sewers to flush out human waste) is also a problem, with only a fifth of the population having access to adequate sanitation. Between 1994 and 1995, just over a quarter had access to clean water.

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