Ethiopian Lentil-Okra Stew

Okra seems like a Southern US food, but lentils and okra are also staples in Ethiopian cooking.

 Let me tell you about this richly-flavored Ethiopian stew. My vegan friend lent me her copy of Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food, in which the writer provides recipes for dozens of traditional Ethiopian dishes with substitutions for vegan and gluten-free eating.

I didn't know much about Ethiopia, other than what I remember of the horrific droughts and starvation back in the 1980s. I learned that Ethiopia is on the horn of Africa, right below the Middle Eastern countries and the Red Sea. While we won't visit Africa anytime soon, we can still take a food vacation there.

Thanks, Wikipedia, for this photo!

Some of the earliest human remains have been found in this country, and it was one of the most powerful countries in the world around 200 A.D. A culture this old must surely know a thing or two about cooking good food, and this lentil-okra stew is amazing. It's also cheap, gluten-free and vegan, low in fat and cholesterol, and easy to prepare.

Ingredients

For the berbere paste:

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 cup red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp oil
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

For the Ethiopian lentil-okra soup:

1 cup red lentils
3 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 cups tomatoes, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh okra, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup berbere paste

Instructions

To make the Berbere paste:
Saute the garlic, ginger, and onion in the oil until tender. Transfer to a blender or food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend into a thick paste.


For the lentil stew:
Rinse the lentils and place them in a medium saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered until the lentils are tender. Skim off any foam that rises in the pot. Drain the lentils and set them aside.

Place the tomatoes and berbere paste in the pot and simmer until they soften and become a puree. YOu can use an immersion blender to make the sauce an even texture, if desired. Stir in the okra, vegetable broth, and lentils, and simmer until the okra is just tender and the sauce is thickened, about 30 minutes.

Serve over rice or with flatbreads such as naan, pita, or Ethiopian injera bread.

Serves 4.

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Guinness Irish Beef Stew

A few years ago I took an Humanities tour of Ireland and Scotland during winter break at my college, studying art, literature, and Celtic culture. We left Chicago on Boxing Day (December 26 to us Yankees) and spent two weeks falling in love with the countryside, the very friendly people, and the rich tradition of art and literature around us.

The exuberant colors of Irish buildings. 

I know I fall in love easily when I'm traveling, but there are just so many things to love.

Glendalough Monastery, founded around 600  A.D.

Dublin Museum of Natural History

During my trip, I tried authentic Irish stew a couple of times. On a chilly day, is there anything better than beef and vegetables slowly simmered in a dark savory gravy? Yes there is! The Irish say, why not add a couple cups of stout beer to the broth?

Guinness DOES taste better at the source: the Dublin brewery's tasting room.

This beef stew is best if it cooks low and slow for a long time, so you can put it in a Dutch oven or a slow cooker and let it melt into delicious stew all day. That's perfect if you want to go to an Irish celebration like the Chicago parades or a local party. By the time you come home, chilled and ravenous, it will be ready for you to devour.

If you visit Ireland, there are at least two things you should know. Between Christmas and New Year's Day, nearly everything shuts down - the entire country is closed. I wanted a friendly Irish family to adopt me for the holiday week as their aunt from America. I would have loved to snuggle into one of those old farm cottages with the peat fires burning on each end of the house, and get in touch with my Irish pride.

The other thing that you should know is that, if you should buy a package of Guinness to sip while you're dressing to go out to the pub with your friends, there is not a single item in the Republic of Ireland that will open the bottles except for a bottle opener. Not a doorjamb, a faucet, your teeth, the sharp corner of a table, a ring, or certainly not your poor tender palms.

Kara is battling a Guinness bottle with the faucet. The bottle won. You can feel her desperation, can't you?

Instead, just go to the local pub, which is a sort of extension of the Irish living room. You'll get to sing along with the band and maybe even play, if you brought your pipes, bodhrán, or fiddle. You'll definitely enjoy plenty of craic ("crack"), which means good times with good friends, music, and gossip.

Pub in Kilkenny; I'm pretty sure it was called Tynan's Bridge House.

Ingredients

Note: use any combination of veggies you like; this stew is adaptable!

2 pounds beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 cup flour
2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups onions, sliced
1 cup parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/4" coins (about 2 medium-sized parsnips)
1 cup carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4" coins (about 2 medium-sized carrots)
1 cup celery, sliced (about 2 celery ribs)
1 cup green peas, fresh or frozen
2 pounds red potatoes, quartered
1 1/2 bottles Guinness or other stout-style beer
4 cups beef broth
1 cup water
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves

Instructions

Toss the beef with the flour until the pieces are well coated on all sides. Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the meat on all sides.

Stir together the broth, beer, water, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and bay leaves.

If using a crock pot, place half the beef in the pot then half the vegetables, then layer the other half of meat and vegetables on top. Pour the broth mixture over the top and cook, covered, for 8-10 hours on low heat or 4-6 hours on high heat (depending on your crock pot's temperature). When finished, the meat and vegetables should be falling-apart tender.

If using a pot on the stove, place the beef, onions, garlic, and other vegetables in the pot. Pour the broth mixture over the top and stir it together. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for 60-90 minutes, stirring occasionally. Again, you know the stew is ready when the meat and vegetables are falling-apart tender.

Before serving, remove the bay leaves. Blend together the cornstarch and water and stir it into the sauce. Let it thicken the sauce for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Serves 6-8.

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Aloo Paratha (Indian Potato Pancakes)

Hey, did you know "aloo" means potato? One of my favorite foods, for sure.

Aloo parathas are delicious anytime. While some people eat them for breakfast, they're also great to wrap up fillings like cucumber-yogurt salad, eggs, chutneys, lentils, beans, or anything your imagination suggests. The most difficult part, if there is a difficult part to this simple recipe, is rolling out each cake. Be gentle and sprinkle your surfaces with flour as you need it.

Though my Indian-American friend Sheilja has made these before, she called her mom in New Jersey to get a specific recipe before we cooked together this week. Sheilja says her mom can toast these cakes on three or more griddles at once without losing her head or getting flustered.

Ingredients

6 cups potatoes, boiled and finely shredded
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp red chili powder
4 tsp cumin powder
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp salt (or more, to taste)
About 3/4 cup flour (we used whole wheat flour), plus more for rolling
2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus more for cooking (about 1/4 cup total)

Directions

Stir together all ingredients. Form the potato mixture into balls the size of a golf ball - about 2" in diameter. Coat each of the balls in flour and let rest for 5 minutes.

Gently roll out each ball on a floured surface, until it is about 1/4 inch thick and 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Place on waxed paper while rolling the rest.

Heat a flat skillet on high until a drop of water sizzles off it immediately. Place one or two parathas on the skillet, making sure they don't touch while browning. Swirl a drop of oil on the top of each pancake, then flip it when the first side is browned. Put a bit of oil on that side as the uncooked side browns and begins to bubble a bit.

Serve warm with any variety of chutneys, vegetables, yogurt, or the delicious raita - a cucumber-yogurt-mint sauce.

Makes about 30 pancakes.

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Seafood-Stuffed Portobello Caps

I'm torn between presenting this stuffed mushroom recipe as an appetizer or a meal. If you want to use baby portobellos (crimini mushrooms) or white button mushrooms instead, these make a tasty bite-sized appetizer. We stuffed them with white fish and shrimp, but if those are not your favorites, stuff them with any seafood combo you like.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/2 small jalapeno, seeded and minced

4 oz. any kind of white fish, chopped

3 oz. shrimp, cleaned, tails removed, and chopped

2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

1 tbsp butter, melted

1 cup white bread crumbs

3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

8 large portobello mushrooms, or 1 pound white mushrooms

3 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Optional

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 1/2 tsp wasabi paste or powder

Instructions

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and finely chop them. Grease a baking sheet and set the mushroom caps on the sheet. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Add the mushroom stems, onion, celery, and jalapeno, and saute until tender. Add the chopped fish, shrimp, and Old Bay spices and cook until just opaque. Try not to over-cook the shrimp, because they'll get rubbery.

In a bowl, stir together the butter, bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese. Add the seafood mixture and stir well. Fill each mushroom cap with the fish stuffing and top with the shredded cheese. Bake at 350 degrees 20-30 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is bubbly and toasted on top.

If you want, whisk together the mayonnaise and wasabi. Just before serving, drizzle the wasabi mayo over the hot mushrooms. Serve the mushrooms piping-hot.

Serves 4 as a main meal; serves 6-10 as an appetizer.

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Olive-Stuffed Italian Bread

My siblings share with me a special love for olives - something that has become a bit of a joke at holidays. We would not dream of a holiday celebration or family party that didn't include a big bowl of olives.

If you make extra chopped olives and don't stuff it in the bread, you can use it as a tapenade for our recipe Crispy Polenta Wedges with Olive Tapenade - or if you end up with extra tapenade after making that recipe, by all means stuff it in your next loaf of homemade Italian bread!

Ingredients

2 cups warm water (110-112 degrees)
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast from a jar
1 tsp sugar
5 cups white flour, plus 1/2 cup or more for kneading
2 tsp fresh chopped oregano, or 1 tsp dried
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mixed olives, pitted and chopped (we used green ones with pimientos, Kalamata olives, and oil-cured Italian olives)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg white
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Directions

In a mixing bowl, stir together the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit for 20-30 minutes, until the mixture is bubbly (this is called "proofing the yeast"). Stir together the flour, oregano, and salt, then gradually stir into the yeast mixture.

Turn the dough out onto a floured counter or kneading board. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky.

Grease a bowl that is at least twice as large as the volume of dough. Place the dough in the greased bowl, and then turn it over to coat the other side of the dough. Cover with a damp dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Stir together the chopped olives and parmesan cheese and set aside.

Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Sprinkle a flat surface and a rolling pin with flour. Roll out half of the dough into an 8x12 oval. Sprinkle half of the olive mixture evenly over the surface. Starting at one of the long ends, roll up the dough jelly-roll style, tucking in the sides occasionally, and pinching the end shut. Place it in a greased baking sheet. Repeat with the other loaf.

Cover the loaves with a damp dish towel and allow to rise until dough has doubled - about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut diagonal slashes in the top of each loaf, then brush with the egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the crust is golden and the loaves sound hollow when rapped with a knuckle.

Turn out of the pans and cool on a baking rack. For best results, slice it at room temperature.

Makes 2 hearty loaves.

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