Some Ethiopian Spice

We hosted our second annual Christmas time Ethiopian celebration last night.  Oh my, what a night. My mother bought all her daughters Ethiopian scarves. They are sold locally, but purchased from a company in Ethiopia, where two of our dear friends volunteer. They help women, who used to be prostitutes,by teaching them to make these beautiful scarves. Fashion-ABLE. You have to check out the work they are doing, it's truly incredible! You can check out the work our friends, Ian and Brittany Bentley are doing at www.steadfastlove.org.

We gathered last night to celebrate our family. To honor the child that is not yet with us. To incorporate a culture that will forever be a part of us. To eat, laugh, and you know that there had to be some crying. When we all joined hands to pray, Kenny prayed for our time together and thanked God for our food, trying to keep it light-hearted as he saw that I was already on the edge. When he finished I said, "No. I need you to pray for our child. I want you to implore God to bring our child home." There we were all gathered together storming the gates of Heaven, on behalf of our precious child, and we all lost it. We wept out loud together. We are all ready for you to come home my darling. Last year, I thought for sure our child would be home by this Christmas. You gotta love my optimism at each point along our journey. I wrote about last year's Ethiopian feast here. I wrote more about the culture in that post, and you can tell I was feeling very hopeful.

My Mom and Dad (Nana and Papa) and my older sister and Uncle Steve.

My little sister and her husband.

 Look at all the color on the table! Don't you want some Ethiopian in your life? Wish you could smell the spices and feel the warmth while you're reading this.

This year, the focus was on dreaming of our child coming home and how yummy the food was. I am definitely getting more confident in my Ethiopian cooking skills, and had so much fun making the food this year. We had Doro Wat (Chicken Stew), Mesir Wat (red lentils), and Chickpea Wat (garbanzo beans, carrots and potatoes). Last week, we drove up to Oakland to a store called, Brundo, where I bought the injera (sour tasty, spongy tortilla looking yumminess that you use for your utensil), my berberre (Ethiopian spice mixture), Niter Kibbeh (clarified butter) and Dabo Kolo (snack made from a flour dough spiced with Berbere spice that's fried in groundnut oil.)

I doubled everything, and always added a dash more garlic and ginger. Here are the recipes, if you want to give it a whirl. One is in the crockpot, and the other 2 take about an hour to make, but only 10-15 min of prep. My favorite is the red lentils, but I'm wild about all three!

Doro Wat

Crock Pot Doro Wat - I took this from an adoption blog, but I cannot find the blog to pass it on! Sorry! I will add a link, as soon as I find it!
3 lbs Bone in Chicken (I used Chicken Breast, so I didn’t have to de-bone)
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
8 gloves garlic, minced
2 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp berbere ** (more if you like it hot)
1 tsp cardamon
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp fresh ground ginger (did you know you can keep fresh ginger root in the freezer and it lasts for months? You can even grate it while frozen and just pop the leftover root back in the freezer)

6 peeled boiled eggs

Combine all ingredients (except eggs) in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours (a couple hours less on high). I use split chicken breast (bone-in). About 4-5 hours in you should check the chicken. You need to shred/de-bone it before the chicken gets too tender or else you'll end up with a pile of bones in the bottom of your Wat (gag!). Just take the chicken out of the crock, debone it and put the meat back into the crock to cook longer, become more tender and soak up the spicy goodness. At this point go ahead and add the (peeled) boiled eggs.

* I've tried this recipe with boneless/skinless chicken breast and I wasn't a fan of the texture. I think it ended up being too dry. If you really want to skip the de-boning process, you can use boneless chicken but I'd recommend doubling the oil and perhaps lowering your expectations (just a tad).

*** I typically double this recipe. This dish works great to freeze

Mesir Wat (red lentils)
I got this recipe from Food.com and I love it! http://www.food.com/recipe/mesir-wat-ethiopian-red-lentils-408641

Chickpea Wat
This one was also from Food.com http://www.food.com/recipe/ethiopian-chickpea-wat-219899

Enjoy!

Hope you get a chance to try some of these recipes, or find an Ethiopian restaurant. You won't regret it! Next year, when we celebrate, we will definitely have our sweet love in our arms for the festivities! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May your 2013 be blessed!

 

Servings Size

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