Step-by-step Injera, Part 4 (plus doro and gomen wats)

Along with our injera, we prepared 2 stews to accompany it--a mild version of the classic doro wat (a famous Ethiopian spicy chicken stew with hardboiled eggs, berbere and an Ethiopian clarified spiced butter called niter kibbeh). We also made gomen wat, a vegetarian stew from kale. Below are some video clips taken during the process of cooking, cooling, and rolling the injera and preparing the stews. (Before we made our injera and stews I also whipped up some lamb sambossas, a tomato, onion, and green pepper salad, and a garbanzo bean [chickpea] dish called kik, plus bought some mead [honey wine] to round out the meal. We invited some friends over and feasted.)


Now, here in central Pennsylvania, I no longer have to wait for a trip to Washington DC or New York or Boston to get my injera fix!

Here's Laura Litwiller's Doro Wat recipe

1. Remove skin from about 2 pounds of chicken pieces (we used Cornish game hens) [each chicken is generally cut into 8 pieces]
2. Sprinkle with 2 Tablespoons lemon juice and 1 teaspoon salt
3. Let stand while preparing these ingredients:

4. Heat 4 Tablespoons vegetable oil in a heavy pot
5. Finely chop 2 cups of onions, mince 1 Tablespoon of fresh, peeled garlic, peel and grate 1 teaspoon ginger root (or use 1/2 teaspoon dried ground ginger)
6. Mix all ingredients together with the heated oil and stir well. Cover and cook on low heat until the onions are just brown.

7. When the onions are slightly browned, add
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Ethiopian cardamom (if available, otherwise substitute regular cardamom)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

8. Stir well and add:
2 Tablespoons berbere (for a mild stew) and 4 Tablespoons paprika [for a hotter stew, add 4 Tablespoons berbere and 2 Tablespoons paprika] NOTE: If authentic berbere is not available, make your own "make-do" using: 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, @ Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons paprika, 1/4 ateaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon [again, for a hotter berbere, substitute more cayenne pepper for the paprika], 2 Tablespoons tomato paste, and 1 cup water (or more as needed).

9. Bring to a boil and cook slowly, stirring often, for 45 minutes. The sauce should be the consistency of heavy cream. Add a small amount of water if necessary.

10. Add the chicken pieces (or Cornish game hen pieces) to the sauce, turning pieces to coat. Add 2 Tablespoons of butter (preferably, authentic Ethiopian niter kibbeh or ghee, if you have it; a "make-do" niter kibbeh can be found at the link above). Lower the heat and cook the chicken for about an hour, turning the pieces often to prevent sticking and to so it cooks evenly.

11. Prepare 1 hard-boiled egg for each person. Peel the eggs and cut shallow slits (5-6 for each egg). Add the eggs to the sauce, stir, and simmer them in the sauce for the last 10 minutes of cooking time.

Serve with plenty of injera.
Since we didn't have a proper round Ethiopian table (as we did at my son DK Osseo-Asare and his good friend Lionel Lynch's recent graduation celebration in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Addis Red Sea), and had to cook our injera in a square pan, we did not serve it the traditional way (on top of the injera, with more on the side), but simply let people do as they liked: either unroll it and spoon the stews on top, or eat it straight from their plates. Either way, clean hands were the only utensils we needed.