East Africa - Doro Wat

First off a bit of background....

"Wat (meaning “food”) is an Ethiopian and Eritrean stew or curry which may be prepared with chicken, beef, lamb, a variety of vegetables, and spice mixtures such as berbere and niter kibbeh, a seasoned clarified butter.

Several properties distinguish wats from stews of other cultures. Perhaps the most obvious is an unusual cooking technique: the preparation of a wat begins with chopped onions cooked in a dry skillet or pot until much of their moisture has been driven away. Fat (usually niter kibbeh) is then added, often in quantities that might seem excessive by modern Western standards, and the onions and other aromatics are sautéed before the addition of other ingredients. This method causes the onions to break down and thicken the stew.

Wats are traditionally eaten with injera, a spongy flat bread made from the millet-like grain known as teff. Doro wat is one such stew, made from chicken (and sometimes hard-boiled eggs) the ethnologist Donald Levine records that doro wat was the most popular traditional food in Ethiopia, often eaten as part of a group who share a communal bowl and basket of injera."

And this from http://www.weblogtheworld.com - written by Erick Ackerson:

Ethiopia is a landlocked nation located in the Horn of Africa, with a population of 82.5 million people, making it the second most populous nation in Africa.

Ethiopia is the place where the first Homo Sapien allegedly appeared. It is a country steeped in history and bloodshed. It was the place of conquests and battles and the rise and fall of Empires. In fact the history of Ethiopia is so dense that summarizing it in a few paragraphs is impossible. Suffice it to say that better historians than I have tackled this task to better results.

Ethiopia was the first country to declare Christianity the national religion, in the 4^th century. Today it maintains a Christian majority with another 35% percent Muslim. This is reasonable considering its history and its location in relation to the roots of all three Abrahamic faiths as well as its relative geography along the Red Sea.

As a result of this geography, it is no surprise that the food culture in Ethiopia reflects both its Arabic and African roots. Doro Wat or spicy chicken stew is the national dish of Ethiopia. The use of North African spice blend Berbere has been seen in Eritreas Zigini and is popular throughout northern Africa. In fact, Doro Wat is very similar in makeup to Zigini except that it uses Chicken instead of beef. Also the addition of the spiced Ghee adds an element that is not found in the Zigini recipe, but is used throughout the countries on the spice routes and originated in India.

Traditionally in Ethiopia, Wat is served with either Injera Bread or over rice.

We doubled the recipe, so we used twice as much as everything in the list, the reason being we had a 10lb bag of huge leq-quarters, and the plan was to separate the thighs from the drums and the backs from the thighs. The thighs (about 4 lbs or so) went to the Doro Wat. The drums (about 4 lbs as well) are to be made into my http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=125&title=rivets-famous-superwings - for the football games today, and the skin and backs for a broth-making boil today as well.

Here's a run-down on how we did it:

Easy ingredients: chicken, ginger root, garlic, cayenne, paprika, http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=282&title=berbere - , fenugreek powder and the http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=907&title=niter-kibbeh - (spiced clarified butter, super easy to make), 2 cups of chicken broth (still cold and gelled), a decent merlot, onions and lemons..

Mrs Rivet disjointed the chicken and turned up some clean skinless thighs while I prepped the rest of the goods. Coarlsy chopped onions, all the spices in a bowl, garlic and sliced ginger in another, etcetera...

The thighs were marinated in fresh lemon juice and 2 TSP salt while the rest of the prep was going on. Total time about 45 minutes they marinated-

Now here's a crucial part of the flavor-making magic of this dish: Take all the onions and sautee them over medium high heat, with nothing....no water, no butter, just dry until they caramelize. This is the basic depth-creating golden delicious flavor of the finished sauce-

Once caramleized, they were pureed with the garlic and ginger. Had to do this in 2 batches 'cause there were a lot of onions.

Then in a deep pot, put about a half cup of the Niter Kibbeh. Once it started to get hot, I added the dry spices, and these were quickly stir-fried over high heat for about a minute or so until fully mixed with the niter kibbeh.

Immediately after that, I added one cup of the berbere paste and continued to stir fry that over medium heat for about 3 or 4 minutes. This is a signature technique of Ethiopian cooking- sauteeing the spices as a separate step in the process- as it greatly deepens their richness and flavor.

Then added the pureed onion garlic ginger mixture and mixed that in well over medium to low heat. Added

the 2 cups home-made chicken broth and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup red wine-

In went the chicken. Brought the pot to a boil then reduced heat to simmer.

The pot simmered for 2 hours and lots of the moisture evaporated, thickening the sauce beautifully. I had overlooked how much liquid the chicken gives off, so I should have reduced the broth by about 1/2 to 3/4 cups. Oh well, the finished sauce was perfectly good, though I thought it should be a tad thicker. During the simmering, I gently stirred the pot of liquid, from the bottom up, because the spices and onions tend to settle and the liquid rise. We don't want the onions to scorch on the bottom of the pot.

The finished meal was not "hot" at all but it was deeply "spicy" with a delicious rainbow mix of flavors that literally tumbled around your mouth. As is tradition, the Doro Wat was served with http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=911&title=injera - flatbreads. They were great to sop up the sauce and to scoop up the meat, much like tortillas are used.

Of course, we also used silverwear to help pull the meat off the bones. This was perfect, as I did not want the chicken to be so overcooked that it fell off the bones, thereby turning the dish into a soup. The chicken should be in intact pieces-

The simmering process could very well be done in a crockpot and would greatly simplify or extend the cooking time as needed. Just keep in mind the moisture levels and reduce accordingly. The injera's flavor was an unbelievably good match for the dish, it's sourdough like flavor really coming together well with the spices making a perfect balance of flavor in the mouth. I am always enjoyably surprised when I taste regional foods that go hand-in-hand, as if they were made for each other...don't know why, I just am. A squirt of lime (or lemon) adds just a right amount of brightness to some of the bites.