Hello beloved Supper Club! I'm so excited to be back and that I get to see the sun again. It was wonderful to visit the grandparents & I even got to see my brother who is temporarily staffed in Oregon. But first, let's take care of business because I am a bit late this week. Please take a look at our fantastic menu now HERE, and load up on all the exciting things we're cooking up for you so you can enjoy your time next week, and leave the shopping, chopping and cooking to us chefs who are ready to take care of you.
REVERSE ENGINEERING AFRICAN FOOD
One of the very exciting things on the menu is an Ethiopian Feast! If you've not had Ethiopian or Eritrean food, you're in for a spicy treat. During the pandemic, obviously, we could not go to our favorite Ethiopian restaurants--and to make matters worse my most favorite Ethiopian chef RETIRED! THE NERVE OF SOME PEOPLE!! How dare she retire without teaching me how to make my favorite Ethiopian dishes! So while you all were making bread, I set about reverse engineering my favorite Ethiopian/Eritrean meal:
It was not easy. I failed at my first two attempts. I mean, how important could "spiced clarified butter" be? I had the berebere spice, so I thought I was set. Berebere--the firey, complex African spice--is made up of 14 different spices and chilis, so I had assumed it was the most important thing. But no, turns out the entire cuisine rests on--not the berebere--but the 1/2 day process it takes to make this special, clarified butter called Niter Kibbeh. And there are not very many Ethiopian cookbooks, and online research is...not reliable. And I'll tell you the hard-won secret to Niter Kibbeh--black cardamon. Not green. Black.
Part of the reason I had so much trouble was my favorite Ethiopian chef was not really Ethiopian, but rather Eritrean. So all the names I thought I knew were not showing up on Ethiopian sites or in Ethiopian recipes. THE NERVE! How dare she retire unannounced leaving me to flail around making bad food, and after exhaustively going to every Ethiopian restaurant (once the pandemic subsided), I have given up hope of ever finding her meals in person, I will just have to keep making them myself: Bersin--spiced lentils similar to Misir Wat, Kulwha or Kelwa Derho--spicy chicken similar to chicken tibs, but not really, and Veg Alicha--similar to same as the Ethiopian version, except my favorite chef used rosemary and that I've not ever found at any restaurant. I hope you love it as much as my husband and I do.
Oh, I also researched how to make injera, the spongy bread creature that looks a bit like a giant tortilla and an English crumpet had a big, floppy baby. If you're not familiar, Ethiopian food is eaten with your hands and you use this injera 'bread' to pick up and eat the food. Aaaaand not surprising, it's a *ridiculous* amount of work similar to making sourdough bread including special pans & working with teff flour, so I'll be buying us some injera from House of Tadu in San Francisco to go with our feast because theirs is the best and doesn't fall all apart when you're using it to eat. I may not be able to find Eritrean food, but certainly there are quite a few people around who can make injera. Thank goodness because as much as I love you all, I don't have three days and giant special pans to make spongy bread creatures.
I'm excited to share one of my hard-won favorites with you this coming week! What is the most complex meal you've figured out how to make?
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