Spicing it up
HAPPY New Year, everyone. The sound of sabres rattling might almost have been as loud as the fireworks seeing in 2018 around the world but let’s hope that this year proves to be a happier, healthier, safer and more prosperous one for all of us.
By the time you read this, it will already be at least January 6 — ample time (according to some statistics) for you to have broken your New Year’s resolution(s) already. Apparently 43 per cent of resolutions will have been broken within a month, and 80 per cent won’t make it to the end of March. One way to improve your chances of success is to make only one resolution (preferably not one at which you have failed several times before) and break it down into stages on which you can build. Instead of saying, “I’m going to give up eating meat/drinking alcohol/having more than four cups of coffee a day” and failing, try “I’m not going to eat meat/drink alcohol/have coffee (or whatever) on Mondays and Wednesdays” and when you’ve got to grips with that, you can build on your success and add in Tuesdays and Thursdays as well if you wish. “I’m going to cook from scratch every day” may not be a practical option for you but “I’m going to cook from scratch at the weekends” might be, and could set you off on the road to eating more healthily.
Losing weight is the world’s most popular New Year’s resolution and Dr Rangan Chatterjee, the star of BBC’s Doctor in the House documentary series, has just published a book about how changing your lifestyle can be more effective in that regard than aggressively counting calories. The book has been serialised in the Daily Telegraph this week and it makes interesting reading. He has various highly practical tips for improvements that will benefit the health of the whole family. One such is to increase your “fivea-day” target to include five differently coloured vegetables (as well as whatever fruits you eat) each day. He has made it into a game (and a light-hearted challenge) for his children as they mark up their “colours” every evening on a rainbow colour chart stuck to the fridge door. Even if you don’t have children in the house, it could be a fun challenge for the adults.
Moving on from New Year’s resolutions, this weekend sees those of an Orthodox Christian tradition celebrating Christmas as their churches follow the old Julian calendar. Last year, when writing about that, I mentioned that a favourite Christmas food in Ethiopia (one of the oldest countries in the world and believed to have been the home of one of the Three Wise Men) is doro wat — slow-cooked chicken and hard-boiled eggs in a spicy red pepper paste — but I didn’t have room to give the recipe at that point. I didn’t actually mean to take a year to get round to it, but you can’t rush these things. 4 tablespoons nit’r qibe (Ethiopian spiced butter, recipe below)
2 onions, finely chopped 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons berbere (Ethiopian spice mix, recipe below) 500ml water
8 chicken drumsticks or thighs, or a mixture of both, skin removed Salt
4 hard-boiled eggs
Heat the butter in a large frying pan or skillet with a lid. Add the onions and cook gently for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time so that they don’t stick. Don’t rush this stage; it’s important that the onions are richly caramelised. Stir in the garlic and ginger and continue to cook gently for a further 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add most of the berbere and stir in the water. Season the chicken pieces with salt and arrange them in a single layer in the pan. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for about 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Turn the pieces occasionally so that they are well coated in the sauce.
Remove the lid, increase the heat and let the mixture bubble until the sauce is reduced and thickened. Prick each of the eggs several times with a fork or pierce with a knife, stir them into the pan and simmer until warmed through. Taste the sauce and add more berbere if you wish. Serve hot (four portions; leftovers can be gently reheated).
For meat eaters, there is a version made with beef called sik sik wat.
Traditionally doro wat is served with an Ethiopian flatbread called injera. It’s a sort of spongy pancake made with teff flour (a grain indigenous to the area), and the batter is left to ferment for up to four days before being used. The best local substitute here would probably be pide or lavaş. 225g unsalted butter 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 plump garlic cloves, crushed A knob of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
6 black peppercorns 4 green cardamom pods 2 cloves
A pinch of cinnamon A pinch of cumin seeds
Put all the ingredients into a pan over a medium-low heat. As the butter melts and foam rises, skim it off with a spoon. Continue to simmer gently until the foaming stops, about 25 minutes, and the milk solids have sunk to the bottom.
Strain the butter through a fine sieve lined with a double layer of muslin. Discard the solids and repeat as often as necessary, until you have a completely clear butter with no residue or spices left in it. Pour the clarified butter into a jar or lidded container and allow to cool. Tightly covered, it will keep in the fridge for up to two months.
Berbere is a hot spice blend that is an integral ingredient in Ethiopian cuisine. Naturally every Ethiopian cook has their own version; a friend brought this one back from their travels. It is an excellent all-purpose seasoning that can be used as a rub for meat, poultry or fish, or to spice up soups, stews etc. 2 teaspoons coriander seeds 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (çörek otu)
1 teaspoon black peppercorns 3 whole allspice berries (yenibahar)
5 green cardamom pods (seeds only)
4 cloves
4 dried red chillies 1 scant teaspoon ground fenugreek (çemen otu) 2 tablespoons ground sweet paprika
1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper (pul biber)
1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon turmeric A very generous pinch each of ground cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
Put the whole spices and seeds into a small, heavy-based pan, crumble in the chillies and toast over a high heat for a few minutes until very fragrant. Keep shaking the pan to avoid scorching them. Tip the toasted spices into a bowl and allow to cool completely before grinding in a spice mill.
Add the ready-ground spices and salt and grind again to blend together. Stored in a screw-top jar, away from direct sunlight, the blend should retain its heat and flavour for several weeks.