When my son, Derek, came home one evening and announced that he was going to go to a supermarket to buy food, I said, “okay.”
“I’m going to make Ethiopian food for dinner. It will be a feast!” he said. He delegated recipes to Dan and Zoey, my future son-in-law and daughter. The three of them started to prepare. It took them two days.
The Dinner
Here’s what they made:
- Roast Berbere Vegetables and Chickpeas
- Ethiopian Lentil Stew
- Coconut, cucumber and lime salsa
- Teff flatbreads
- Tibs – Marcus Samuelsson – beef dish
- Doro Wat – Chicken dish
For Dessert:
- Kaimati – donut
Drink:
- Emudro Recipe [West Africa]
Here’s a sampling of the vegetable recipe:
Roast berbere vegetables and chickpeas – Here’s how to make it:
1⁄2 tsp ground turmeric, 1⁄2 tsp paprika
3⁄4 tsp berbere spice mix 3⁄4 tsp cumin seeds
1⁄4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 sweet potatoes (about 700g), unpeeled and cut into 2cm dice
240g cooked chickpeas (tinned are fine here), drained, rinsed and patted dry 1 cauliflower (about 700g), broken into 2-3cm florets
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
90ml olive oil
130g baby spinach
1 tbsp lemon juice
Heat the oven to 425F. Mix together all the spices in a bowl. Put the sweet potatoes and chickpeas in one large bowl and the cauliflower in another.
Put two-thirds of the spice mix, half the garlic, three tablespoons of oil and half a teaspoon of salt in the sweet potato and chickpea bowl, toss to coat, then spread out on a 30cm x 40cm baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
Put the rest of the spice mix and garlic, two tablespoons of oil and half a teaspoon of salt in the cauliflower bowl, and toss to coat.
Roast the sweet potato and chickpeas for 10 minutes, then add the cauliflower to the tray, stir and roast for 15 minutes more, until all the vegetables are soft and golden brown, and the chickpeas are crisp.
Mix the spinach with the remaining tablespoon of oil and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, and spread out on top of the vegetables. Return to the oven for a final 10 minutes, until the spinach is crisp, then leave to cool for about five minutes. Drizzle over the lemon juice, gently mix together one more time, transfer to a platter and serve.
My thoughts:
The dinner was absolutely lovely. However, it was a little spicy for my taste. It was beautifully displayed and although the clean up was a little harder than I expected, everyone chipped in to make it clean.
It was a special evening with my children. I wouldn’t want it any other way!
