tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558327011506448714.post6046168997365042513..comments2011-09-04T21:22:45.268-07:00Comments on Around the World in a 45-square-foot Kitchen: EthiopiaKatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05611797551355721911noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558327011506448714.post-91569311436134879452011-04-12T01:10:35.612-07:002011-04-12T01:10:35.612-07:00Hey there! I was hunting about for information on ...Hey there! I was hunting about for information on silsi and happened upon your blog. Meaza at Bailey's Crossroads is a terrific restaurant and you can also buy injera there. Dama, also on Columbia Pike, is another source. I also saw it, of all places, at a 7-11 at the intersection of Duke and Howard Street.<br /><br />If you're interested in Eritrean food, there's a terrific little restaurant on Pickett Street in Alexandria--Café Aurora. I learned about it on WETA's recent program about breakfast in the DC area. Dishes to try include Fu'ul (a mashed fava bean stew), Kilcha (I think of it as Eritrean stuffing for breakfast) and, of course, Eggs Silsi.<br /><br />BBFairlington Bladehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05476028510987727861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558327011506448714.post-90438745988863424102010-10-28T03:29:08.419-07:002010-10-28T03:29:08.419-07:00I'm glad I can facilitate this relationship! A...I'm glad I can facilitate this relationship! Adam is an AMAZING cook!!! I ate his risotto for a whole week after our last dinner party club.Capital Katiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16647853470297792361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558327011506448714.post-24670432536961656142010-10-18T04:30:48.018-07:002010-10-18T04:30:48.018-07:00Adam - Oh my goodness, thank you so much! I'm ...Adam - Oh my goodness, thank you so much! I'm going to wait at least a few months before tackling Eritrea, but I'll definitely make silsi, the berbere for real, and either get or make better injera. I'd love to have you cook with me if you're interested, local, and we can schedule.Katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05611797551355721911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558327011506448714.post-20069739570879790742010-10-17T20:13:35.589-07:002010-10-17T20:13:35.589-07:00I'm a friend of Katie's from "Date Me...I'm a friend of Katie's from "Date Me, DC." My mother is Eritrean, and I have to say, you've done some amazing stuff, here. Eritrean and Ethiopian food is pretty similar, save that the Italian influence on Eritrea results in the use of tomato in a few places. <br /><br />I get my injera at Marhaba Market, 3819-G S. George Mason Drive, in Falls Church. They also sell bottles of teff (which, as the world's smallest grain, tends to behave like a liquid in its ground form), so if you feel like recreating the experience of making your own again, that's an option. If you find yourself in DC, you can pick injera up at the little store attached to Dukem on U street, but I greatly prefer the berbere at Marhaba Market--much spicier and a much nicer bite to it. <br /><br />Berbere itself is the consolidation of most of the spices you've included, but it's generally used wet, in a form called something like dillih (I haven't really settled on a transliteration of the glottals that collide at the end of the word), which starts by cooking an onion in water till it dissolves, adding berbere until it forms a paste, and then adding kibbeh, ginger, pepper, and garlic. The paste is then cooled and refrigerated. It makes a surprisingly pronounced difference in the finished dishes--not that there's anything wrong with working from dry spices, and not that I generally go through the trouble myself. If anything, I think it has to do with a difference in how the spices cook when they're hydrated versus when they're dry. <br /><br />When I was growing up in Cleveland, there wasn't really any kind of Ethiopian or Eritrean community there, so I saw the long experimentation process while they tried to make their own injera. My grandfather, who was a machinist, actually converted an old drum washing machine into a kind of electric kettle with a cast-iron top. It works... but having gone through the process enough times to learn it, I have to say that I'm happy to leave the bakers to it. The basic problem, as it is with any sour dough, is that working without a sponge makes it difficult to get a fine enough texture on the first generation of bubbles. So either you end up with basically flat injera that didn't bubble enough, or injera the height of a pancake because it bubbled enough, but the bubbles were huge. <br /><br />In terms of kitfo, my trick for making it has always been this: most contamination in U.S. meat happens on the surface. I buy a large roast and cut two inches off of each side. The outside sections I turn into zighini (the Eritrean version of sega wat). The inside, I grind with the grinder attachment to my stand mixer and serve. <br /><br />The major element of Eritrean cuisine that doesn't have an Ethiopian analog is silsi, which is kind of a tomato sauce enriched by berbere. Typically we'd dip kicha into it, which are just cornmeal crackers made from water, corn, salt, and a bit of spice painted onto a hot griddle, then lifted off and dried in the oven.Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15770371357670299710noreply@blogger.com