Family photo, Summer 2009, originally uploaded by Curt Wohleber.

Clockwise from top, in case you couldn’t tell: Linda, Zerihun, Curt.

I made this March 1 for our celebration of one year with Zeri.

I’ve been a big fan of Ethiopian food for about 10 years now, but the closest Ethiopian restaurants I know of are in Kansas City and St. Louis, so a few years ago I started making my own Ethiopian dishes.

Last year my wife and I adopted a little boy from Ethiopia. We didn’t choose that country because of the cuisine, though it did add to the appeal and we had fantastic home-cooked Ethiopian food during our stay in Addis Ababa.

Bringing home our son, Zerihun, gave me a great excuse to make Ethiopian dishes more often. Here is a hybrid of several doro watrecipes plus my own modifications.

It made me really proud that Zerihun loves this stew. Well, he did before he lost interest in all Ethiopian food. Lately he only likes hot dogs, fried chicken, pancakes, breakfast cereal and several fruits. That’s a shame, but it hasn’t stopped me from cooking the food of his homeland.

Ingredients: 

• 3 lb chicken
• 2 C red onion, chopped
• 2 T garlic, minced
• 2 T lemon juice
• 2 ts salt
• 1 T grated ginger
• 1/2 ts cardamom
• 1/4 ts nutmeg
• 1/4 ts allspice
• 1/4 ts clove
• 1/4 C unsalted butter or niter kebbeh (spiced clarified butter; I go with regular unsalted)
• 3/4 C water
• 1/4 C dry red or white wine
• 1-2 T berbere powder or chili powder (less if you don’t want it to be too spicy)
• 1-2 T paprika
• 2-4 eggs, hard boiled (I usually skip the eggs)
• 8 oz. tomato sauce or, for slightly thicker stew, tomato paste.

For more veggie content, I sometimes include:

• 12 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 3-4 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1-2 potatoes, diced

Cut chicken into serving pieces and pat dry. (I usually use breasts or thighs cut into bite-size chunks).

Combine in a hot saucepan: 

• butter or niter kebbeh  
• onion
• garlic
• lemon juice
• salt
• ginger
• cardamom
• nutmeg
• allspice
• clove

You can probably get away with using less butter, especially if you use a non-stick pan and/or substitute vegetable oil for some or all of the butter. On the other hand, I saw one recipe that called for three sticks of butter–and not the clarified kind, just regular sticks of butter.

Simmer two to three minutes. By now, people should be coming to the kitchen and saying “Wow, that smells great!” And you haven’t even used any ingredients more exotic than cardamom. 

Add: 

• water
• wine
• berbere
• paprika
• tomato sauce/paste and diced tomatoes
• carrots
• potatoes 

Cook for three to five minutes. 

Add the chicken pieces. 

Cover tightly and simmer 30 minutes or until chicken and veggies are tender.

If including eggs, pierce with fork and add after 15 minutes.

Traditionally served with injera, a spongy flatbread made from fermented teff dough. (You can buy teff at Clover’s and downtown at the Asian market and/or Campus Eastern Foods.) I haven’t had the patience to deal with fermenting the dough for three days. There are recipes for quick injera using teff and/or wheat flour with yogurt and club soda, but I haven’t had much success with those. You might fare better if you have a good electric skillet or restaurant-quality range. I usually substitute rice or naan. (Add curry powder to the stew and you can pretend it’s an Indian dish.)

In many Ethiopian restaurants, guests sit at a wicker table called a mesob. A big piece of injera is placed in the center and various stews and sauces are ladled on top. You tear off little pieces of injera with your hand and use them to pick up your food. You might end up with bright orange stains around your lips. Trust me, it’s worth it.