Eritrean Food

Eritrean Food & Recipes

 
Recipes

Alitcha birsen

Ingredients:

5 spoons sunflower or other vegetable oil
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
250 gr. tomatoes, peeled
200 gr. lentils
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ginger
2 fresh red chilies (remove the seeds)
1 liter boiling water

Heat the oil in a frying-pan and fry the garlic light golden. Add the sliced skinned tomatoes and simmer 5 minutes. Add the washed lentils and simmer shortly. Add salt, pepper, ginger, chili and boiling water. Cover the pan and simmer the mixture on a low fire for 60 minutes. Serve with injera.

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Berbere
Ingredients:2 teaspoons cumin seed
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon fenugreek seed
1 teaspoon coriander seed
8 cloves
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
20 crumbled dried red peppers
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric
3 tablespoons sweet or hot paprika
1 teaspoon salt

Put all the ingredients up to the salt in a frying pan and heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. add the salt and grind the spices in a spice grinder.

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Injera

Ingredients:

200 gr. taff, ground fine (or 50gr. maize and 150 gr. self-raising flour)
1 teaspoon salt
Sunflower or other vegetable oil

Mix ground taff with 250 cc lukewarm water and let stand in a bowl covered with a dish towel, at room temperature, until it bubbles and has turned sour. This may take as long as 3 days. The fermenting mixture should be the consistency of pancake batter (which is exactly what it is).

Add 125 cc soda-water and stir in salt. Lightly oil a large frying-pan. Heat over medium heat. Then proceed as you would with a normal pancake or crepe. Injera is not supposed to be paper thin so you should use a bit more batter than you would for crepes. Cook briefly in the covered frying-pan, until holes form in the injera and the edges lift from the pan. Remove and let cool.

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Tegelese tesmi (herb butter)

Ingredients:

200 gr. unsalted butter
100 cc water
2 small onions, shredded
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ginger, shredded

Put the butter and the water in a frying-pan and heat them until the butter has melted. Add the other ingredients and simmer the mixture on a low fire for 30 minutes, until the mixture stops skimming and the butter is clear. Do NOT stir the mixture. Sieve the butter and allow to cool down in a well closed jam jar .

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Tsebhi shiro

Ingredients:

500 gr. raw dry groundnuts
100 gr. butter
2 spoons tomato paste
2 small onions
2 teaspoons mixed spices to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Shell groundnuts, clean and grind into flour. Put the other ingredients into a saucepan with 500cc of water and bring it to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with injera.

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Tsebhi birsen

Ingredients:

250 gr. red lentils
1 spoon of sunflower or other vegetable oil
1 large onion, minced
2 spoons berbere
200 gr tomatoes, peeled and sliced
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a frying-pan and fry the onion light golden. Add the berbere and fry for 5 minutes. Add the sliced skinned tomatoes and simmer 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the lentils, salt and pepper and simmer shortly. Add salt, pepper, lentils and boiling water. Cover the pan and simmer the mixture on a low fire for 60 minutes. Serve with injera.

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Tsebhi derho (spicy chicken)

Ingredients:

3 Medium size onions, chopped
50 cc chili paste (berbere)
50 cc tegelese tesmi
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 spoons lemon juice
2 spoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt
4 large tomatoes, peeled
1 kilo chicken
6 hard boiled eggs (peeled)
pepper and salt to taste

Cut the chicken into pieces and drain them well. Sprinkle the pieces with a mixture of the lemon juice and the salt and marinate during 30 minutes. Fry the onions lightly on a low fire in the frying-pan. Do not use butter or oil. Add some water if necessary to prevent burning or sticking. When the onions are done, add the berbere and fry shortly. Add the tegelese tesmi and fry this mixture for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, tomatoes skinned and sliced, garlic and ginger and simmer during 20 minutes on a low fire, stirring regularly to prevent sticking. Add some water and the pieces of chicken and simmer until the chicken is done. Add the eggs to the sauce shortly before serving. Serve with injera.

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Tsebhi sega, (spicy minced meat)

Ingredients:

2 Medium size onions, chopped
2 spoons sunflower or other vegetable oil
50 cc chili paste (berbere)
50 cc tegelese tesmi
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
6 large tomatoes, skinned
1 kilo beaf or lamb, shredded
pepper and salt to taste

Heat the oil in a frying-pan and fry the onions light golden. Add the berbere and the tegelese tesmi and some water if necessary and simmer it on a low fire. Add the ginger and the garlic after 10 minutes and the sliced skinned tomatoes, some salt and some pepper after another 5 minutes. After 15 minutes add the meat and simmer it until the meat is done. Add some water if necessary. Serve with injera.

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Hembesha (Eritrean bread)

Ingredients (spicy):

300 cc lukewarm water
25 gr. fresh yeast
1 teaspoon grinded fenugreek seed
1/2 teaspoon grinded coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon grinded cardamom seed
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon oil or butter
450 gr. flour or 225 gr. flour and 225 gr. whole wheat flour

optional: a dash of white pepper, cayenne, ground ginger

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water in a large bowl. Mix the egg and the spices. Add the flour little by little. Knead the mixture for 10 minutes on a floured table.

Allow the dough to rise, covered by a tea-towel, in a warm place. Knead the mixture again and create a round, flat bread (2 centimeters high) from the dough in the frying pan, Allow the dough to rise a second time in a warm place, until its volume has doubled. Decorate the bread with a knife or nails (see picture below).

Bake the bread in the covered frying pan for 10 minutes on a medium to low fire. Turn over the bread and bake it for another 5 minutes. Remove the bread from the frying pan and spread it with some water and butter. Serve warm or cold in wedges.

Eritrean women making hembesha (traditional Eritrean bread).
 The "Guantiera" or the container the woman is using, carries the
 Ethiopian flag, which was one tool for the Ethiopian colonizers
 to make peoples obsessed with Ethiopian chauvinism.

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Hembesha (Eritrean bread)

Ingredients (sweet):

250 cc lukewarm milk
25 gr. fresh yeast
1 teaspoon cummin
50 gr. sugar
100 gr. soaked raisins
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
100 cc margarine or butter
500 gr. flour

Prepare as described above.