When I decided to do this challenge, I decided that for the most part I would just cook whatever my heart fancied each week. However, with so many unknown cuisines this method didn’t really work, and I ended up going through the countries mostly in alphabetical order. I have a list of countries that I go through each week and I try to cook the dishes in order or at least in small clusters so that I don’t lose track. That being said I’ve kind of neglected Djibouti because I haven’t decided what to cook yet! Anyway, when I opened the list and saw that I was well into the Es and that next on my list was Eritrea, I thought to myself: well, here’s a country you know nothing about! This turned out to be true for the most part, I knew nothing about the country itself but I was aware of some of the food and very familiar with some of the spice combinations.
According to research conducted by Italian scientists Eritrea played a large role in the evolution of the modern human being with links to the beginning of the homo sapiens era being found in Eritrea. It has since those times had a rich history which if I was writing a history blog I would go into great detail about, but I won’t take you too far down that path today. Today Eritrea is home to almost 600 species of birds and several species of mammals including wild cats, hares, wolves amongst others, and thanks to regulations that are enforced their numbers have been steadily increasing over the years. In the last 10 years their economy has also grown between 5% and almost 9% each year thanks to mining and the production of cement, it is a country rich in natural resources which Eritrea has finally begun to benefit from following the war of independence from Ethiopia. Reading through their history is really a fascinating read and one that I would greatly recommend to anyone wanting to get to know Eritrea a little better.
When I started to research Eritrean cuisine, I immediately began to notice similarities with the cuisine of neighbouring Ethiopia. Now, I’m no expert on Ethiopian cuisine but I have tried it on a number of occasions as the local outdoor market in Oxford (where I used to eat lunch at least once a week) has over the last two years benefited from two Ethiopian stalls, one of these is vegan. As you read about Eritrean and indeed Ethiopian cuisine it is remarkable how many times people mention that the food is very vegan friendly, this isn’t something that you get very often from other countries. Both countries consume injera with almost every meal. This deeply sour flat bread is used to both serve food on and to eat food with, traditionally a piece of injera is placed on top of the plate, and then food is served on top. Then another piece of bread is used to scoop up the food and eat. While there are a lot of similarities between the two cuisines, there are also some differences. Eritrean cuisine tends to use more seafood, as generally lighter in texture, use less butter and more tomatoes. Additionally, Eritrean cuisine features warmer spices and a marked Italian influence. For this week I decided to cook Tsebhi Birsen which translates to lentil sauce. This dish was very simple to make and was incredibly delicious, it is one of the meals I will add to my repertoire and cook at home hopefully many times over. It is a simple red lentil dish that pairs wonderfully with rice and I can really savour how the warm and almost sweet but at the same time intensely savoury spices would pair with injera.
After comparing many recipes, I decided to go with this one. While it may seem like there are a lot of ingredients in this dish most of them are spices that you will hopefully have at home, if not they are the base spices of berbere so you could just buy a jar of that instead. I think I forgot about it today as it wasn’t in this recipe. The only mayor change I made was to use tinned tomatoes over fresh for the recipe because I rarely find that tomatoes in England have enough flavour to compete with tinned, I did however throw a handful of sliced cherry tomatoes in for texture.
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 tsp fenugreek
½ tsp Black pepper
½ tsp nutmeg
10g cayenne pepper ( the original recipe called for 25g but because I opted for a little less)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp ground cloves
2 finely diced onions
1 400g tin of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
Handful of sliced cherry tomatoes
1 garlic clove (the recipe called for three but I can’t eat that much without being ill – feel free to go for the full amount!)
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cardamom
300g red lentils
1-2 cups of water
Salt to taste
oil
Method
Heat a dry saucepan over medium heat and add the fenugreek, pepper, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, allspice, coriander, garlic powder and cloves. Stir to toast the spices until they become fragrant.
Remove the spices from the saucepan and set aside.
Add oil to the saucepan and once hot add the onion, cook until the onion begins to soften. Add the spices toasted in the previous step and stir vigorously. Add the tinned tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook for around 5 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, cumin and cardamom to the sauce. Simmer for another 2 minutes. Season with salt and taste.
Add the lentils followed by 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. This is when the recipe begins to demand a little concentration. You need to stir the lentils regularly or they will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. Also keep an eye on the moisture. The original recipe calls for 2 cups of water, but the tinned tomatoes also have liquid, so I suggest you start by adding 1. Keep an eye on the lentils because as they cook, they absorb moisture and you may decide they need a little more water.
Simmer the lentils for 3-40 minutes until they are soft but not mushy. Season with salt again if needed. Serve.
תגובות