Day 31: Dinner

The term "Ethiopian food" sure sounds like an oxymoron. We've all heard the jokes concerning this, especially those from the mid-eighties when the East African famine made them particularly tasteless. (Hey, what do you call an Ethiopian with sesame seeds on his head? A Quarter Pounder! Hyuk hyuk.) The epicurean progression benchmark of any city is usually measured by whether or not there is an Ethiopian restaurant in town. Birmingham, of course, doesn't have one.

 The first time I ate Ethiopian food was at Meskerem, in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's a buffet, filled with lentils and greens (have you ever seen an edible looking cow in any of those documentaries?), and the foods are largely flavorless, which is typical of African food in general. (The ancient Africans traded gold for salt.) The most distinctive trait of Ethiopian cuisine is that no silverware is involved; the idea is to take a sheetlike roll of spongy bread, cover your plate with it, spoon your food on top, and eat with your hands, by tearing pieces of the bread and wrapping the food with it. I was not extremely fond of Ethiopian food, though Charlotteans who are will usually say that Meskerem is the place to go. 

This stew was much better. I put the onion and carrot in the food processor (which I bought just today) rather than chopping it, which gives the stew a thicker consistency. Also, I would have gone without the peas; I don't really like peas.

Here's the recipe for Ethiopian lentil stew (with 21 ingredients- wow!)

• 1 cup brown lentils
• 1 large yellow onion, diced small
• 3 carrots, diced small
• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 2 tbsp. fresh ginger, grated
• 1/4 cup peanut oil (I used cooking spray instead)
• 10 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 cup vegetable stock (or water with two veggie bouillon cubes)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 2 tsp. Hungarian paprika (I used the plain kind)
• 1 tsp. fenugreek
• 1/2 tsp. ground thyme
• 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/8 tsp. allspice
• 1/8 tsp. cloves
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt

1. Boil lentils until tender; drain.

2. Saute onions and carrots in a large soup pot with oil for 10 minutes.

3. Add garlic, ginger, and spices and saute 5 minutes more.

4. Add tomatoes and cook 5 more minutes.

5. Add tomato paste and broth and bring to a simmer. Add lentils and peas, and simmer covered for 15 minutes more.

I advise you to eat this with some chewy whole wheat bread. Ethiopian food is meant to be eaten with bread, of course.