Dorowot - chicken wot Ethiopian style

 2.5 kg chopped onion

About 18 to 20 chicken drumsticks 

100 gm berbere

7 tbsp Ethiopian spiced butter 

salt

Add one cup water to chopped onion. Cook until onion is see-through. Add berbere. Stir well. Cook for 10 minutes.  Add butter. Cook another half hour till onion is disintegrated.

Add drumsticks. Cook on low heat for an hour until wot is reduced. Add hard boiled eggs when ready to serve. 

Chinese style lazy salmon

Ingredients
2 salmon fillets about 200 gms each with skin on, scales removed
80-100 gm fresh ginger, skin removed and ground
1 medium size tomato, cut into 8 pieces
Spring onion and coriander to garnish
Salt to taste
Olive oil

Rub salt and ground fresh ginger on the salmon fillets. Place the fillets in an oven-proof dish with the skin up. Place the tomato around the fillets. Drizzle olive oil on top.

Cover the dish (with baking paper) and microwave on high to medium power for five minutes. Then add the spring onion and coriander to the dish, and microwave for 1 minute.

The place the dish in the oven and give it overhead heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown the skin and get it crispy.

Banana coconut cake

Ingredients:

300 gm butter at room temperature
275 gm runny honey
6 big eggs
300 gm ripe banana, mashed
175 gm wholemeal flour
175 gm desiccated coconut
1.5 teaspoon baking powder

Method:

1. Cream the butter and honey till the mixture is fluffy and light.
2. Break the eggs into the mixture and beat till eggs are mixed.
3. Add the mashed bananas, and mix well.
4. Add the flour, desiccated coconut and baking powder. Mix well.
5. Pour into prepared baking tins, and bake at 150-175 degrees Centigrade in a pre-heated oven for an hour.

Apple "Rose" Muffins

Ingredients:
(Yields ~8  muffins)

• 3 apples 
• 80g butter
• 50g muscovado sugar (alternatively white or brown)
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 150g flour
• a dash of milk

Dough:
1. Thoroughly blend soft butter with sugar in a bowl until creamy.
2. Add egg and vanilla and whisk together.
3. Add flour and mix well.
4. Add a dash of milk to achieve a consistency more fluid than Mürbeteig but firmer than pancakes batter.

Rose petals:
1. Cut apples in half and remove the core.
2. Slice the apples into ~2mm slices.
3. Spread out the slices onto a plate suitable for microwave usage. (Optional: Sprinkle some vanilla sugar onto the slices. This depends on how sour the apples are)
4. Pop the plate with apple slices into the microwave on high heat for 3-4 min. This will soften the apples so that they don't break when roling later.

  

Combining:

1. Fill the muffin cups half way with dough.
2. After the apples have cooled slightly, layer 11-15 slices in a line on a cutting board, so that the semi circles overlap each other half way.
3. Start rolling up the apples slices starting at the first one that had been layed down. This requires both hands and sometimes a bit of fiddling work.
4. Place the rolled up apple slices into the muffin cups containing dough, push down slightly and adjust the pattals to your liking.
5. Bake at 150°C for around 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Adjust temperature or time if the apple slices start getting too brown.

 

Honey lemon ginger cordial

400 gm lemon juice
450 gm honey
350 gm ground fresh ginger
450 gm water

Boil the ground ginger in the water for about 5 minutes. Strain the mixture through a sieve. Put the ginger "juice" back into a pot, add a tbsp of the ground ginger to it. Bring to boil again. Then add the honey and lemon juice and bring to boil again. Bottle.

As this is a cordial, dilute with 4 to 8 times hot or cold water before serving.

I can usually keep my cordial for up to 4 months in the fridge.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

for two people:

4 chicken thighs, rubbed in salt

1/2 onion

1 shot-glass sized ginger root

peanuts, salted

cucumber, peeled and scored with a fork

2 hard boiled eggs

For the sauce:

1 spicy red chilli

1 paprika

2 cloves garlic

1/2 shot-glass sized ginger root

vinegar

sugar

salt

Bake the chicken thighs with the skin side up in oven at 200°C for around 45 min (until crispy).

Cut the ginger and 1/2 onion into wedges and place them into rice when boiling it.

Blend all ingrediens for the sauce, adding vinegar, sugar and salt to taste.

Carciofi al latte

This is a dish I learned from good Italian friends (Hero and Carla) back in our Addis Ababa days - artichokes stewed in milk. It's a lot of work cleaning the artichokes, but the cooking itself is simple although it takes at least 30 minutes of stewing.

I do not add herbs to it as many other recipes do. I find the artichoke has a delicate aroma and taste that is easily overpowered by herbs and spices.

Recipe for two

6-10 young artichokes
3 pips garlic, chopped
150 ml milk
oliver oil or butter
salt

Clean the artichokes by cutting away the stalk and a bit of the bottom of the artichoke. Pull away the outer leaves till the bud appears lighter in colour. Trim the rough part where the leaves have been removed. Then cut away the top part of the bud leaving about half of it. The idea is to trim away the hard and stringy parts leaving behind only the tender heart and inner leaves.

Cut the chokes in half, scoop away any hairy seeds. Artichokes brown immediately when cut. You can leave the trimmed hearts in a vinegar or lemon solution. I do not mind the dish looking brownish.



Heat olive oil or butter in a pan. Add chopped garlic, brown slightly, add the choke hearts and fry a bit. Then add salt, 10 ml water and the milk. Stew the chokes till tender and the milk and water have boiled away to a thick creamy sauce.

Serve hot with garlic bread.