As an german ethiopian, who just managed to cook Ethiopian food few weeks ago, I have to say I am beyond IMPRESSED. Like I messed up so many times even tho I had all spices ready to use at hand 😂🤷🏽♀️
Ethiopian restaurants are heaven for vegetarians! I'm lucky enough to live in a city with a ton of Ethiopian immigrants (Minneapolis) so the injera flows like honey here. I've been meaning to learn to cook my favorite Ethiopian dishes forever and this is giving me inspiration to visit my local East African grocer and finally make some nice shiro wat
I'm in St. Paul, hi twin!! Penzeys spices (with locations is Mpls and Stp) sells Berbere so if you don't want to wait for shipping or try to make your own you can do curbside pickup. It's ahhhhhmazing and I use it in lentil stews and on various veggies all the time 😊
I'm usually a terrible carnivore and I'm not a fan of alcohol or sourdough bread, but I will drop everything for Ethiopian vegetable dishes and injera, and the only drink I've really enjoyed was the house made honey wine from a local restaurant.
@@yip3303 My family is in Tigray I didn't know that was the reason why we couldn't contact them, I thought it was because everything was still shut down. From what I know there is still conflict going on in Tigray but it is dying down I think so I am grateful 🙏🏾 I just want to rebuild now and get rid of ethnic federalism
I'm Eritrean and I eat shiro with sourdough bread whenever my family runs out of injera. Also you should try Eritrean/Ethiopian porridge called Genfo (Ga'at in Eritrea). It's really simple, you only need flour, water, niter kibbeh (tesmi), and berbere. Serve it with a side of yoghurt and sprinkle some salt for taste.
Hey this was really interesting, thank you! One suggestion: for completeness in future videos could you also mention the original ingredients? I know you did for ethiopian cardamom but it'd be nice to quickly see or hear about the others!
For the butter you have the Ethiopian cardamom (korerima) and also koseret (Lippia abyssinica) which are the 2 main ingredients. The cardamom I think gives the most flavour and is very unique (as in mixing green and black does not taste at all like that). This one is important also for meat meals like kitfo. In addition, Ethiopia is a very diverse country so another common ingredient in some areas is besobela. The first two korerima and koseret you should be able to get from any Ethiopian restaurant but besobela I never have managed to find. Also they would never put garlic in some areas but would in other. Though there might be slight variation between families the big difference is between regions/ethnicities. Best is always when you go in a restaurant and like the food, ask about the butter and if you really want to detect the flavours of the butter in a restaurant order kitfo (if you are not vegetarian) and if you are not comfortable raw say lebleb, which means rare. Then if you like it ask for the main butter ingredients. The butter is very important for dishes in Ethiopia ranging from vegetarian to meat and is present probably in more dishes than berbere. It is not even used really as butter is used in western cooking (at the beginning ) or in French (the whole way through ;)) but actually often is added at the end more akin to a spice.
@@johnnymnemonic6703 I looked up ethiopian cardamom and it took me to amazon. At the bottom it showed that the cardamom was frequently bought with besobela and kosseret. I ended up finding all three things right there and am very seriously considering buying it (about $35 for 3 decent bags but the cardamom isn't whole :( ). Give it a look if you're vying for a more traditional taste
Hey Andong, 2 things, being i native we put yogurt on almost everything, so the yogurt is not 100% untraditional, and you can find wheat injera in most Arab stores, at least here in the US, and its not too far off from the authentic thing. A small warning, if it is sour then that is a method to preserve the injera. If you don't mind, could you make more videos on Ethiopian cuisine, if I may suggest, shüro , or hulbut (I'm not 100% sure how to spell them). Shüro it contains many different powders and hulbut is made of many different seeds and is an acquired taste, at least from where I come from, I'll leave the rest of the research to you ;)
Cannot find anything on "shüro" on the internet (apart from a lone mention of a dish with ground beans in, yet nothing beyond that), would you care to elaborate a little bit? ^^
supermassivedwarf I am not 100% sure on how to say it in English but it’s an orange powder that is a blend of many many other ground beans, primarily chickpeas (a yellow variant is made with only chickpeas) but it is a very common Ethiopian dish, it’s not popular on RU-vid with more meaty dishes overtaking it but if you search hard enough you are bound to find it. (Also try searching Ethiopian street food it might help)
@@deangutu8897 Thanks so much for the description; it sounds delicious. Yet, I may have to wait for a trip to Ethiopia for a taste of it - still having no luck finding it whatsoever. Have you thought about starting an Ethiopian street food RU-vid channel yourself?
@@deangutu8897 Hi dean, I thought the video was about "Shuro (shiro) wat". I even have the orange Shiro powder at home and I think the Andong showed how we got the final powder by mixing the "berbere" spice with the original cream color chickpea powder. I am native but I had no idea how exactly the berbere and "nitir kibe" was made. :)
@@samsam2093 if you have family back in Ethiopia ask them to send you the berbere, and i originally thought he would make shiro too, also if you want to make a traditional simply saute onions, tomatoes, garlic puree, pepper, and whatever other spices you have. Then pour in the shiro powder and water until you get your desired consistency, from where my parents came from (the northeast) we don't add much water because a thick shiro. Also, everyone has their own recipe, this is just one you can make in a pinch, and don't skimp on the garlic or onions.
I've never been to Ethiopia, but near Nollendorfplatz (Berlin) there is a great Ethiopian restaurant, and everything I tried there so far is extremely delicious and comforting. One of the most consistently great cuisines out there!
Andong: “And I know you guys are not going to order them to just use them once.” Me: **sees flashes of all the spices I have in my cupboard that I have used only once**
Wawww thank you for this beautiful video Brother. I'm Eritrean,it is also eritrean food the Culture and foods is almost the Same and Shiro is my favourite traditional food I eat This delicious and healthy food 4 times a week 😋😋
love your channel. i am Ethiopian and you did great by the ingredients you have. the only thing Ethiopians might cringe at is eating Shiro like a soup.
The "brown" cardamom is pretty widely available at Indian grocery shops, and they usually call it "black" cardamom or "badi elaichi" (literally, big cardamom). Also, my understanding is that the Ethiopian basil is a cultivar of tulsi or Holy Basil. Again, something widely used in India as well as in Thai cooking. In India as much as we might cook with it, it probably sees equal or even greater use in religious contexts and in the cultural formalization of old wives' tales called Ayurveda.
I know it from tulsi tea, like the pukka tea brand sells tulsi tea (I sort of assume onboarding the natural food Ayurvedic trend that came up following the yoga)
Yes, it is different, but I've seen plenty of Thai recipes that call for "Holy Basil" rather than the usual Thai basil or purple basil. And yeah, fresh tulsi is hard to find, but the seeds actually aren't, so it's almost always easier to grow yourself than to buy.
When I visited Ethiopia, I was given the Berbere to bring home, but that was way before my cooking adventures began! so now that I am more adventuresome, I am so grateful for this Berbere recipe... even if it's not authentic! :)
11:40 very important information here. Always mix flour that contains proteins (e.g. gluten) with COLD water, not warm. The warm water will immidietly develop the protein structure and form lumps. Always mix flour with cold fluids.
@@geekchick4859 You should publish a paper then. If you seriously can prove that proteins don't lump mixed with hot ionized fluids, you could get famous. No sarcasm.
It's kinda sad the African cuisine is so unknown (at least here in Europe). There are Asian foodstores everywhere, but African ingredients are really hard to get, while the food is absolutely amazing.
In the US, I typically associate East African cuisine with the greater DC metro area and several midwestern cities (e.g. Minneapolis and, to a lesser extent, Columbus).
This also has to do with marketing. Several Asian countries have spent lots of money to promote their local cuisine in the West to generate interest in the respective country.
@@lasseb5612 I believe that good food is spread by the migration of people and not by marketing campaigns. I didn't think much of Mexican food until I had a good taco made by someone who cared what he was doing. The same is true with Korean food, which clicked for me when I first had an assortment of Banchan in front of me, or Ethiopian food, which Immediately stood out to me for its injera bread. The problem with African food (particularly West African food) in the Western Hemisphere is actually not one of influence. It's that we often don't acknowledge its African origins. I've watched Nigerian cooking videos and immediately recognized the dished as incredibly similar to ones used in the US, Caribbean, and Brazil. Then I came to the conclusion that the story about the dish being of French or Portuguese origins was BS.
I must say that Andong seems such a nice, positive and clever guy. He dives deep into his explanations which is very interesting for us, home cooks, who want to upgrade our cooking skills all the time and add a lot of flavors to our dishes.
As an Ethiopian, I really appreciate your effort in making your own ingredients to substitute for the real thing. I wish someone who lives in your area gets you some! Most ingredients we use in Ethiopia are very complex. E.g., shiro is a mix of several spices apart from the chickpea and paprika powder... the same is true for berbere...and the preparation takes meticulous processes. It's interesting how you prepared the niter kibe (clarified butter) with ingredients not commonly used in Ethiopia. The defining ingredients you couldn't find are esential to get the Ethiopian kibe flavor. I can imagine the taste of the kibe you prepared would be good, still different from the typical one. Again, I am impressed by how far you went to improvise and prepare Ethiopian food!
Awesome! Nice to see some RU-vidrs bringing attention to Ethiopian food which is sorely underrepresented in the larger culture as a whole, but especially their food culture which is pretty much all phenomenal.
Totally. This is usually a pretty good call with most regional spice blends too. Garam Masala, Chinese 5 spice, you name it. Just make some plain old Mac and cheese and chuck some spice blend in it.
hey Andong! loved this, but I would really enjoy a brief explanation on what is included in the authentic versions that are missing, just so we know. you're truly one of my fave youtubers and I have been loving all the types of content you work on!
@@oliviercantin5926 I've made the first turkish one tho :D it was delish ate it in turkey but his way way a lot better had to buy a hand mixer as well xD
Hey Andong, not sure if you’ll see this but anyways just wanted to say keep up the great work. You have one of the best cooking shows on RU-vid. It’s so interesting to find out the origins of a dish and how to make them, even if that dish isn’t 100% authentic they still look dope. Keep up the great work! I’m loving soup season, Can’t wait for the next one.
CIAO ANDONG! hey man loving the soup season! my wifes hungarian and im half italian and we both want to recommend a soup to you ;D shes going for the beef gulyás "gulasch" and im recommending zuppa di ceci e castagne "chickpea&chestnut soup from toscana" feuer frei du geila schnitzl du!
This is my first time coming across your channel. I really like how you actually set a table and tasted the food. So many cooking channels neglect the fact that you actually eat the food you made.
Whoever chose your soup-spot has an amazing eye for blocking. The color vs weather vs modernity vs a very classical dish. There is a lot of symbolism going on there. (Also I love street art)Thanks for sharing your vids.
If you don't care about the ethiopian cardamom pods, you can buy the seeds only instead. The seeds can be bought online and are usually called grains of paradise. The ethiopian cardamom is called korerime
Hey man us Africans are just happy to get recognized, I have a idea for a video aswell maybe try Sadza/Ugali it's sold in alot of Indian shops even in Europe, I have family in the UK and Denmark so I know it's sold there it's basically corn meal but it's not any cornmeal it's close to polenta but more firm and is so easy to make for viewers and I'm 100% they will like it as it's also eaten with your hands and really makes it feel African, much love from South-Africa/Zimbabwe ❤️
Our neighbors for many years was a family who came from Eritrea. Our kids fell in love with the Injera that their mother made. Several stores in town now sell her Injera.
Wow, I never realized until now, but…shiro wot (no, I didn’t mean “shirt wit”, stupid auto-correct!) is a dal! Lentil stew, using ground rather than whole, and a finishing splash of spice-infused ghee. And your idea of using rye sourdough instead of crappy fake injera is fascinating! I’ll definitely be making this - I’ve loved Ethiopian food for years, but never made any myself.
i'm indian and i was thinking the same thing! injera also looks and sounds similar to dosa - which is eaten with sambar, which hey, also sort of resembles dal. though dosa is made from fermented batter and not dough
Thank you for making this. I've been curious about making ethiopian cuisine for a long time, and this video brought me over the edge. Have my Shiro wat boiling right now. Your videos are great!
This is really yummy, have eaten it on an Ethiopian restaurant here. I also always have a jar of the Ethiopian spice mix berbere in my kitchen. Thanks for a great video, as always💚
There is a wonderful Ethiopian restaurant near my home, and they have some hot dishes with very potent berbere. The burning within your mouth can easily last for a good fifteen minutes after finishing your meal. I love it.
There is an Ethiopian restaurant in Detroit MI I've eaten at several times. It's served the traditional way on injera bread exactly as you have pictured. I now have moved far from the area and miss it so much! The food is very healthy and was delicious.
Sorry to hear your channel's not getting as much viewership anymore :( your more commercially-available takes on traditional and niche foods has always interested me and you're clearly a very talented cook. If you feel you can, please, keep up the excellent work, I'm sure RU-vid's algorithm will stop hating you soon.
Can you please make a video about Georgian Kharcho? Delicious thick spicy-sour beef, tomato and rice soup. Georgian food is the best in the former Soviet Union
Simply loved the soup series, you managed to make me try some incredible recipes. I've already added many of them to my repertoire, thanks for making me grow as a chef!
I was salivating throughout the video. I know what flavor profile you were referring to and also love stews/ dishes made with chickpea flour/ besan. Gatta da saag is one of my favorite stews and sattu is my favorite drink.
We all know that juicy meat dishes get the most views, but I think they get boring after a while. That's why I love your content Andong. You regularly broaden my horizon and it always looks like you're having mountains of fun! Greetz from the Ukraine :-)
We use grains of paradise "ethiopian cardamom" all the time at home cooking different Middle Eastern, Western, and Indian inspired dishes. if you love to cook they are worth seeking out. oh and they taste sort of like black pepper and faint cardamom but more complex.
As usual a fantastic episode! Great work Andong. This one seems a bit much to prep all the spices/butter just for it, but trust me, Ethiopian food IS worth it.
You should try "Bulgarian bean soup". Traditionally cooked in clay pot with a ton of spearmint and nice creamy white beans. I am more than sure that you will love it!
I lived for five years with an Eritrean family in Southern Germany (love you Abeba and Kifle!) For their Injera, they used millet (Hirse) and the same sour dough method. Not sure if they had a live culture to begin with but for the time I was there, it was always made in the same bucket with a starter from the previous batch
I hope you feature more ethiopian food in the future. I love it but I have a hard time remembering what is what when I'm at the restaurant (because of the combo plates). Would be nice to learn more about each kind.
I love your videos so much, I'm from Brazil, and I love Chinese food and soup is my favorite dish! And if everything goes like I intend I'm gonna move to Germany to make my residency! Gonna eat a donner as soon I get there hahahaha
There used to be an Ethiopian restaurant near me; the chef INSISTED that all dishes started with dry-fried onions. He’d basically pan-toast them with no oil until they got fragrant and brown, then he’d add the oil and everything else. I don’t know if it affected the end result as much as he claimed, but whenever I make gomen now, I make it that way. Regardless, Ethiopian food is delicious.
Not a good time atm to try dishes (or anything else) in our city. Because of the lockdown restaurants are only allowed to offer take away food. However, have fun!
