1st Night at Kalahari

For the first night at Kalahari my brother and I ate at the buffet.  I had 15 mussels, 6 clams, 5 lamb chops/ribs whatever, a slice of prime rib, a cob o' corn, a brownie, a cookie, and half a slice of cake.  It was AMAZING.  Sam.

The end of ethiopia/kenya

Today marks the end of ethiopia and kenya.  Still eating leftovers in the fridge, but we won't be cooking anything else because we leave tomorrow for spring break.  We will know who the decider for the next month is after the final four.

Continuing in Kenya, Up next...the bracket will decide

We stayed in Kenya last night, with a beef stew with rice pilau.  It's going to be a busy week, so we made Ethiopian Beef Berbere last night and more Kenyan curry. 

We will take next week off since we are headed for Sandusky and Cleveland.  When we get home we will try to clear out some of the leftovers in the freezer from the first 3 months.  Up next?  The winner of this month's march madness bracket (the family only) will decide what country is next.  So far Jack is the lead.  He is eager for Korea, since he has a new friend at school that just moved here from Korea.  We will wait and see...

Kenya

I've liked almost everything I cooked in Ethiopia, but nothing wow'ed me enough to make it again (except the doro w'at) so soon.  So I decided to branch out in east Africa.  These two recipes are from Kenya.  It was a big hit with the boys.  The spices are similar to Indian food, something we've missed since we've been cooking "one month at a time".  If anyone has new ethiopian recipes, we are happy to try them.

Kenyan Curried Cabbage:

Melt 2 tbsp butter over med heat.  Saute one onion, finely chopped.  Added 1 head shredded cabbage and toss for about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle about 1 tsp curry powder and fresh ground pepper to taste.  Mix well.  Add 1/4 cup heavy cream.  Cook 2-3 minutes, until reduced.  Add salt to taste and stir in 3 shredded carrots and cook until heated through.


Kuku Paka

Put 1 chopped onion, 1 small red pepper, 2 inches ginger and 4 garlic cloves into cuisiart.  Process until smooth.  Heat 1/4 oil and add the puree with 1 tbsp curry powder and 2 tsp cumin seeds.   Saute until cooked down, about 10 minutes.  Puree 1 can tomatoes and add it, simmer for 5 minutes.  Add 3 pounds chicken (leg quarters), one can coconut milk (we used light), salt and pepper.  Cover and simmer for about an hour, until tender.  Remove chicken, take meat off bone while the sauce is reducing.  Add back to pan.  Add chopped cilantro.  Serve with rice.

jack again

its me sorry its been a while. ive just loved mexico,italy and now etheopia i cant wait for whats left

Ethiopia continues

Last night, Sanford made a berbere rubbed ribeye.  Our grass fed steak tasted so earthy, that it tasted more like lamb than beef.  I'm struggling with new recipes and losing my enthusiasm for another 10 days of ethiopia.  There is a spice that I'm using that I'm not in love with, but I'm not sure which one it is. 

Chicken and nut stew

The beginning of the berbere paste

Chicken and nut stew recipe adapted from Cafe Beaujolais Cookbook.  We're not sure if it's ethiopian.  It seems and chicken and nut stews are eaten all over africa.  We adapted the recipe by adding berbere paste to the peanut butter.

Looking for more recipes

Last night we made chicken doro w'at again.  A different recipe this time, which was much better.  I'll post it soon.  Also we slowly sauteed collard greens, that were the best I've ever had.  I thinned the injera batter with club soda, with better results.  The flavor and texture was better, but I couldn't keep it from sticking to the pan.  Tonight, I sauted beef and vegetables with the leftover sauce from last night's chicken, add berbere paste and let it stew for a couple of hours.  I kind of feel like I cheated. 

Yes Jill, it did take me 20 minutes to write that paragraph!

There are so many great things to eat and drink and there is so little time and money and so often after work so little energy to make tortillas or pasta or...But it is fun.  For me Mexico was better than Italy because I am a fan of BIG flavors.  All the recipes we read "in Italy" called for dramatically less garlic, herbs, and spices than we usually use...we like big flavors.

Ethiopia will be fun and challenging. Challenging because we can find so little info, so few recipes...think 20 or 30 recipes compared to libraries of Italian or Mexican cook books.  Marcus Samuelsson, I'm now at work and don't have access to his book and the specifics in it, discusses how suprised he was (is) to find so little written about the cusines of Africa, particularly because Africa is so important in the history of the planet and the people that live on it.  Marcus Samuelsson is a famous chef, if you were unaware, who is from Ethiopia, was adopted and raised in Sweden, and now has restaurants in NYC. 

This post has taken several days, not for its difficulty (obviously), but for constant interuptions and demands...Jack Jill and Sam! that means you!  I'm not as smart as the three of you, I can't converse think and type at the same time.  Sam, I know you would say that I can't type at all; and Jill, you would say that I am not much of a conversationalist; and Jack, I don't want to hear your opinion on my intelligence.

After two meals, and a couple of late night snacks of left-overs, I am loving Ethiopian food...Ethiopian food of 2211 Bluff Boulevard Columbia Missouri!  Spicy and saucy with squishy bread to sop it up with.  Much more exciting for me than Italy...though I do miss the wine, and grappa, and sambuca, and fernet!

cheers! Sanford

Retfo

Tonight's dinner:  retfo (ethiopian ground beef with peppers) was very similar to a spicy sloppy joe.  We served it with rice.  Also, yedubba we't (pumpkin hot sauce) which was not a big hit with the kids (or me).  Next time I'll substitute butternut squash for the pumpkin.  Served with a cucumber salad.    I made we't spice, mit'mit'a (very hot spice), more berbere paste, t'iqur qarya awaze (ethiopian green chili paste) and more spiced butter.   Also made a lentil soup for lunches this week.  I'm not sure if this pictures really represents the disaster I made this afternoon!

Ful for breakfast

Smashed fava beans sauteed with garlic, onions and berbere.  Served with tomatoes, boiled egg, scallions and feta cheese.  Loved it!

Beef Berbere

The injera was better today.  We used Marcus Samuelson's recipe which was 2 parts teff to 1 part white flour, baking soda, salt, yogurt and club soda.

Beef Berbere :  recipe to follow.  Spicy.  Tasty.

 

 

 

Jill's spice bazaar

Beef Berbere

Saute 1 1/2 cups chopped onions with spiced butter until browned.  Add 1 cup Berbere Paste (see recipe) and 3/4 cup dry red wine.  Saute 2 minutes.  Add 1 1/2 pounds beef, (we used chuck roast) with 1/4 tsp ground cardamom, 1 minced garlic clove 1/2 tsp salt and pepper.  Simmer until meat is tender.

Berbere Paste: 

Toast 4 whole cardamom pods, 2 tsp cumin seed, 1/2 tsp black peppercorns, 1/2 tsp fenugreek seed until they start to pop and are fragrant.  Grind to form a powder.

Combine 4 garlic cloves, 1 small chopped onion and 1/2 cup water in blender and puree until smooth.  Add the powder from above and 15 dried piquin chilis, stems removed.  (we used 10 dried arbol chili pods), 1 tbsp ground cayenne, 2 tbsp ground paprika, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground allspice, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cloves and blend. Slowly add 1/2 cup water and 3 tbsp vegetable oil and blend until smooth. 

Pour into a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes to blend the flavors and thicken.

This recipe was taken from  Flavors of Africa Cookbook by Dave DeWitt, Mary Jane Wilan and Melissa T. Stock

The Chicken and the Egg

 Injera, we'll need much more practice.  Flavor was interesting, but texture needs improvement.

 Lentils

 Stewed cabbage

Doro W'at

All dishes were from saveur magazine.   We made their berbere spice mix and spiced butter.  We ended up adding a different berbere paste to give it a little more heat and depth of flavor.  Tomorrow we'll use a different source for our recipes.  Tonight was a success, other than the bread.  The kids gobbled it up, including 23 month old Olive!

Happy Birthday Sanford and Good-bye Italy

 Orecchiette  

This was one of our favorite pasta recipes from Mario Batalli

2 cups semolina

2 cups all purpose flour

1-11/4 cup tepid water

Mix flours, making a well in center.  Slowly add water and mix.  Knead for 8-10 min.  Rest 10 minutes.  Roll into long dowels about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut into flat disks about 1/4 inch thick and make indentation with your thumb.

Our other favorite pasta recipe was from time life foods of the world.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 egg

 1 egg white

 1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

a few drops of water

Put flour in bowl making a well in center.  Put in egg, egg white, olive oil and salt.  Mix with fork or fingers until dough can be gathered into rough ball.  Moisten remaining bits of flour with drops of water and add to dough ball.  Knead for 10 minutes, then let rest for 10 minutes before rolling.

 Broccoli - this will replace our regular steamed broccoli

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil.    Add florets and cook until crisp tender, lightly browned.  Add a couple of tablespoons of water and a couple of slice garlic cloves.  Cook until water has evaporated.  Then toss with red chili flakes.

 $10 canned crab vs. $3 crab

Crab ravioli

T-Bone Fiorentina with Sauteed spinach

Sam made Vistorta Torta di Cioccolato from Saveur Cooks.

Great job Sam!  Happy Birthday Sanford!