Exotic Ethiopian Cooking

That’s the book Yana gave me for Christmas.  I hadn’t realized how much the cuisine relies upon red onion and how many of the dishes require a full cup of red pepper paste.  Spiced butter is common too.  The recipe for red pepper paste starts by suggesting "15 lbs." of New Mexico red chiles.  I’m trying it with…15 red chiles.  We’ll see how that goes; I’ve also scaled back the "5 lbs. fresh ginger" to 5 pieces of fresh ginger.

If you’re ready with the spiced butter and the red pepper paste (neither is totally simple), most of the recipes take 5-10 minutes and sound quite delicious.

The menu for tonight includes fesenjan chicken, Parsee sweet and sour fish, Parsee lamb with stewed apricots, Ethiopian sauteed beef with injera, and red lentils.  I’ll also make Ethoipian pumpkin if I have red pepper sauce left over.  Natasha is preparing Russian vegetable salads.