I have this little habit. Every time I have a conversation with someone about Ethiopian food, I have to then go out and eat some, soon, or I am overwhelmed with a craving for injera and wat. The problem is that I have conversations about Ethiopian food all the time. And as much as I would like to eat several meals a month (or week) at my fav ET restaurant, Fasika, in St. Paul, the budget doesn't support that. So I've had to learn how to make it myself.
Just a few days ago, I was at an Ethiopian Kids Community (EKC) meeting to plan this year's Mehaber, our annual picnic of adoptive families who love Ethiopia. It's gotten so big that for the last few years, we've held it at the State Fair grounds. This is my third year on the committee and my first year serving on the EKC board. We started our meeting with introducing ourselves and sharing about our favorite Ethiopian food. My two favorites are Kik, mild yellow lentils, and Beef Tibs, cubed beef in berbere sauce.
Today, three days later, I made them, and while the recipes I used didn't come from Extending the Table, the dishes turned out quite delicious. What I actually did was go online, look up a couple recipes, and merge them together into my own version of the dish. Butter, onions, ginger, garlic, and peppers make a flavorful base for both dishes, which are scooped up with bits of injera. I admit to just buying the injera at a local shop. Lentils and beef I can handle. Fermented teff, not so much.
Tonight we had an Ethiopian meal, but it lead to listening to a ET cd, doing our family version of shoulder dancing, and discussing over our meal what various words in Amharic mean. We took pieces of the culture and made them our own in way that is authentic for our family. And the more that we have these moments, the easier it is to realize that we crave the rich, unique flavors of Ethiopian culture in our lives always.
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