Ethiopia: Doro Wat

Today I'll be going south to Ethiopia. The dish I'm going to make today is Doro Wat, a curry like dish made from Berbere which is a spice mix made with oil and a selection of spices.

It's reasonably hot and has a distinct curry taste. Doro Wat can be made with chicken, fish or vegetables. Today I'm going to be using chicken and green peppers, but feel free to substitute the main ingredient for anything you like.

It is usually served with Injera, an Ethiopia  flat bread, not dissimilar to a tortilla or a pancake. Unfortunately it takes 72 hours to make and uses teff flour that I couldn't get hold of, so I just served it with pitta bread, less authentic, but still delicious!

Ingredients

200g chicken

1 lemon

120ml vegetable/olive oil

1 tbsp ground cumin

1tsp cardamom seeds

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp ground all spice

1 tbsp ground paprika

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp ground nutmeg

3 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 chopped onion

500ml chicken stock

2 chopped green peppers

2 tbsp flour

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Method

1. Marinade the chicken in the lemon juice and pinch of salt.
2. Heat the oil in a pan.
3. Mix together all the dried spices in a bowl.
4. Add the spices to the heated oil and stir for about 5 minutes, releasing the aromas.
5. Add the garlic, ginger and onions cook until softened.
6. Pour in the stock and add the chicken pieces and pepper and bring to the boil.
7. Add the flour.
8. Bring to the boil then put onto a low heat, cover and leave to simmer and reduce down into a thicker curry-like consistency.
9. Serve with pitta bread, flat bread or rice.

Philippines: Kare-Kare

Today I’m travelling further east on my cultural cuisine quest; to the Philippines. In my opinion, Filipino food is massively overlooked. It’s delicious, filling and original, and often cheap to make. Who can ask for better than that? The regions food involves a lot of stews and as we haven’t quite escaped winter in Britain yet, I thought this would be a great recipe to do. The dish is Kare-Kare and it’s an oxtail and peanut butter stew. It’s intensely flavoured and one of my favourite dishes.

The oxtail gives the stew a rich flavour. Boiling the meat on the bone creates a stock, enhancing the taste of everything in the pot. This one takes a little while to cooking it is a doddle. Some recipes for the dish include banana flower bud, but it’s rather tricky to get hold of and not something that you can usually pick up at your local supermarket so I didn’t include it. Feel free to put some in though if you’re lucky enough to live in an area where you can get such things!

Ingredients
Serves 2-3

500g oxtail/ diced casserole steak

1 onion sliced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped

4 tbsp peanut butter

2 beef stock cube/jelly pot

1 large aubergine (aka eggplant)
100g green beans

150g Chinese leaf cabbage/Savoy cabbage

Preparation Time: 15 minutes 
Cooking Time: 2.5 hours

Method

1. In a large pot/saucepan cover the oxtail and the onion with about 2 litres of water (make sure the meat is covered by the water) and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 1 hour
2. Add the garlic, peanut butter and stock cubes to the pot and stir into the water. If the water isn’t covering the meat add a little more water. Simmer for about another hour until meat is tender. (note: the same recipe can be made with casserole steak, if you can’t find Oxtail or you don’t want something that takes a long time to cook.)
3. Chop the aubergine into large chunks, top and tail the beans and half them, rip the cabbage leaves into manageable pieces. Add to the pot and cook for a further 5 minutes.
4. Serve with rice or just have on it's own.

Certainly a great warm savoury dish. It has been described as Filipino comfort food and I can completely see why and hope you can too!