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peppery spice blend - anyone try it?

S

seattlepitboss

is one Smokin' Farker
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Location
Seattle, WA
I am fortunate to live in one of the few cities in the US where there are significant numbers of Ethiopian immigrants. I have been eating in Ethiopian restaurants all my adult life, especially in the last 15 years or so. Wonderful cuisine, completely different from nearly any other African cuisine.

They use a spice blend (hot) made from piri piri peppers (closely related to the 'red cones of death' peppers you see in Thai food), as well as several other Ethiopian spices, most of which are nearly impossible to get in this country unless you live near an Ethiopian store. Those guys fly home all the time and get people to bring back a few pounds of spices in their luggage.

This blend is called berbere, and it is used in many Ethiopian spicy stews. If you have any experience with Ethiopian cuisine at all, you have probably run across doro wat, or spicy chicken stew usually served with hard-boiled eggs in it.

I'm cooking some spicy lamb stew for my lunch right now as I type this, and I'm nearly out of berbere. I know competition Qers look for anything that might give them an edge. I think this spice blend might well be really good as a rub if you just added some salt.

PS. Seattle area Safeway stores have St. Louis ribs on sale right now labeled as spareribs for 99 cents a pound, or about $3 - $3.50 a rack. Anyone local, it's a real good time to stock up. Prices good through 7/7/10.

seattlepitboss
 
I have not tried it, but based on your description, I want to try it NOW! Thanks for the tip!
 
My favorite restaurant in DC is Ethiopian. Excellent cuisine. We have one restaurant in Memphis but their bread, integral to the meal, is not too good and even a few local Ethiopians I know do not like it. I've had a framed photo of Haili Selasi for 26 years.:becky:
 
OK, I just dug up this recipe online - do you think this is close?:

Berbere Spice Mix
  • 2 teaspoons cumin seed, or powder
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (shell off husks), or powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice (or ground)
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek seed (or powder)
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seed (or powder)
  • 8 whole cloves, or ground
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, or freshly ground
  • 5 teaspoons red pepper flakes or crumbled dried red peppers
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh gingeroot (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (can use hot)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Toast all the seeds and whole cloves in a small frying pan for 2 minutes, stirring constantly (open window or turn on the stove vent--it can smoke). Grind the spices in a spice grinder. If you are using pre-ground spices, ignore and go on to the next step.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients. Place in a tightly covered container and refrigerate.
 
Thanks for the heads up on berbere!
We have about a dozen Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants in the Bay Area and we hit them often because we like the spice blends so much. I've also grown to love the dark Ethiopian beers like Hakim Stout.
There is a joint movement between Jazz resurgence and these cuisines in the city so it is a double dose of goodness! That recipe looks compelling Moose.
 
Looks similar to a recipe I've got (memory check?)
We have a ton of Ethiopian owned Restaurants and groceries. I can even buy the correct sponge bread, Injera here for when I make wat at home

def> Injera is the Ethiopian staple bread its thin crepe like flat bread that the dishes such as Wots, Tibs and Fitfit are served on. To eat the dishes pieces of injera are torn off and used to scoop up a mouthful.
 
Moose said:
OK, I just dug up this recipe online - do you think this is close?:

Berbere Spice Mix


  • 2 teaspoons cumin seed, or powder
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (shell off husks), or powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice (or ground)
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek seed (or powder)
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seed (or powder)
  • 8 whole cloves, or ground
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, or freshly ground
  • 5 teaspoons red pepper flakes or crumbled dried red peppers
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh gingeroot (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (can use hot)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Toast all the seeds and whole cloves in a small frying panfor 2 minutes, stirring constantly (open window or turn on the stove vent--it can smoke). Grind the spices in a spice grinder. If you are using pre-ground spices, ignore and go on to the next step.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients. Place in a tightly covered container and refrigerate.
Click to expand...

I might have to give this a try. Always interested in different spices.
 
pahutchens said:
Looks similar to a recipe I've got (memory check?)
We have a ton of Ethiopian owned Restaurants and groceries. I can even buy the correct sponge bread, Injera here for when I make wat at home

def> Injera is the Ethiopian staple bread its thin crepe like flat bread that the dishes such as Wots, Tibs and Fitfit are served on. To eat the dishes pieces of injera are torn off and used to scoop up a mouthful.
Click to expand...
You're in a major Refugee Resettlement City for North East Africa. Yeah, the bread at our only restaurant is more pancake like and not nearly thin enough like what I've had in DC. But, the local population won't support more than one location. :pout:
 
Moose said:
OK, I just dug up this recipe online - do you think this is close?:
Click to expand...


No, not really. I mean, it is as close as you can come without having hardly any of the actual ingredients. Many of the ingredients are really hard to come by here. It's kind of like cooking in your oven with liquid smoke and calling it BBQ.

Not to say that recipe isn't good. But it just won't taste Ethiopian.

You can buy berbere online. I'm sure World Spice carries it. But anything blended in this country probably isn't quite right.

The cities I know of with large Ethiopian populations are Seattle, Atlanta and Washington DC. If you are in or near any of those, you shouldn't have trouble finding Ethiopian markets and in those you will find authentic imported berbere. Incidentally, you will also find (very cheap too) green Ethiopian coffee beans sold there. Very good coffee if you roast your own!

Maybe I should buy a coupla pounds of berbere and send out samplers?

seattlepitboss
 
pahutchens said:
Looks similar to a recipe I've got (memory check?)
We have a ton of Ethiopian owned Restaurants and groceries. I can even buy the correct sponge bread, Injera here for when I make wat at home

def> Injera is the Ethiopian staple bread its thin crepe like flat bread that the dishes such as Wots, Tibs and Fitfit are served on. To eat the dishes pieces of injera are torn off and used to scoop up a mouthful.
Click to expand...

Injera it is. Made from a grain called teff in Ethiopia, it is a sourdough product and thus relies on yeast strains. Batter made from pure teff flour doesn't seem to work right in North America, so here they tend to blend barley flour with the teff to make the injera batter.

The Amharic word 'wot' just means stew. I'm not sure what tibs means. Fitfit (pronounced foot-foot) means you take your injera and break it up into bite-size pieces and mix it with your stew and eat it that way rather than scooping up stew with injera pieces.

When my wife and I go out to Ethiopian we usually order a vegetarian plate, which is a large platter covered with injera (like a sourdough crepe if you can imagine that) which has all of the different dishes in separate little piles. Each person gets their own injera as well.

Oh, boy -- I'm getting hungry all over again.

seattlepitboss
 
Moose said:
OK, I just dug up this recipe online - do you think this is close?:

Berbere Spice Mix
  • 2 teaspoons cumin seed, or powder
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (shell off husks), or powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice (or ground)
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek seed (or powder)
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seed (or powder)
  • 8 whole cloves, or ground
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, or freshly ground
  • 5 teaspoons red pepper flakes or crumbled dried red peppers
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh gingeroot (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (can use hot)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Toast all the seeds and whole cloves in a small frying pan for 2 minutes, stirring constantly (open window or turn on the stove vent--it can smoke). Grind the spices in a spice grinder. If you are using pre-ground spices, ignore and go on to the next step.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients. Place in a tightly covered container and refrigerate.
Click to expand...

I did a bit more research and this is extremely close to the ingredient lists provided from the best spice providers on line with blends sourced directly from Africa. I'm going to whip up a batch and see how it goes!
 
It is great stuff. we were told at our local Ethiopian restaurant traditionally you feed a bite to your loved ones. It all finger food, properly with the right hand. Left hand is unsanitary you know why
 
Thanks for posting the recipe, Moose. Living in the "wilds" of central Illinois we can't even spell Ethiopian, let alone cook it! It sounds terrific though and I'll definitely try it.
 
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