Ethiopian Food - Doro and Misr Wat

    My wife and I try to incorporate Ethiopian culture into our lives as much as possible.  We want our son to have some connection with his heritage and food it a great way to do that.  I have been working on these recipes for a few years now and I think I am finally getting pretty good at them.  These are my versions, but that taste great and are very similar to what I had during my trip to Ethiopia.  Both dishes use Berbere spice, which is a hot pepper spice mixture used heavily in Ethiopian cooking.  It is worth ordering!  It has a lot of heat, but also a great and really unique flavor.

Doro Wat
5-6 chicken legs (they really do work best!)
Juice of one lemon
3 medium red onions
1 tsp sugar (not traditional, but it helps)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp fenugreek
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1/8 tsp Cardamom (ground)
1/4 cup Berbere spice (You can find it online!)
Salt (to taste)
Water as needed 
2-4 hard boiled eggs (optional)

This is one of the very fist Ethiopian dishes I ever tried.  It is the main dish for most traditional meals (Christmas etc.).  First you want to let the Chicken set in the lemon juice for about an hour or so.    While that happens, start dicing your onions.  I like to dice them very fine (I have even used my food processor). 
In a hot stockpot, saute your onions (DO NOT USE ANY OIL!) until they lose most of their moisture and start to carmelize a little.  I like to add a tiny bit of sugar to aid in carmelizing the onions.   Once this gets to the point that it want to stick and burn, add in your butter.   Then add in all of your spices and stir them in.  Next add the chicken and lemon juice marinade and put a lid on it.  Typically you would cook this on the stove top, but I like to put mine into a 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half.  You may need to add a bit of water after half and hour or so.  I really depends on how much liquid comes out of your chicken.  When this is done, you should have a thick sauce and chicken that is falling off the bone.  I like to pull my chicken legs out of the sauce, remove the meat and add the meat back into the sauce.   Here is a great time to add your hardboiled eggs.  Just take the shell off them and poke them all over with a fork to allow some of the sauce to seep in.  The eggs are my favorite part!   This would normally be eaten with the hand with Ethiopian flatbread called Injera, but we like to serve it over rice or couscous also. 

Misr Wat (red lentil stew)
1 cup red lentils 
1 can chicken stock
1/2 medium onion
1 carrot (diced)
1 stalk celery (diced)
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 TBS Berbere
salt 
butter for sauteing

   Start this recipe by sauteing the onion, carrot and celery in butter until softened.  Next stir in all the spices and let them toast for a minute.  Add your lentils, tomatoes  and stock, cover tightly and simmer until the lentils are cooked.  You may need to add more stock or water as this goes.  In the end you should have a bot of lentils that are a bit on the mushy side.  I actually like to smash mine a little extra (especially if I substitute green lentils as they don't cook up as easily as the red) with a potato masher.   Serve hot or at room temperature with Injera, rice, or couscous.  

    I have tried and tried to make Injera this traditional way and it never comes out well for me.  It was so bad once that the ducks at our local pond wouldn't even eat it.  Here is a quick version you can try that comes out well.   I think this recipe came from Marcus Samuelson's book on African cooking.  It is a fantastic book if you like trying new things.  You can find the Teff flour at most health food stores.  

Injera
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup Teff flour
1 cup plain yogurt
2 cups (or more) club soda
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt


Mix the flours, salt and baking soda together in a bowl.  In a separate bowl mix the yogurt and club soda then add that mixture to the flour mixture and stir.  This should be the consistency of thin pancake batter.  I make mine a lot like crepes.  I get my largest nonstick skillet hot over medium heat and pour the batter in.  I then lift the pan and tip it around in circles to spread the batter out evenly over the surface of the pan.  You want this pretty thin.  cook for about 30 seconds then cover and cook for another 30 seconds.  Remove from pan and let them cool.  This can be very tricky and you will surely lose a few the first time you try this.