No problem I thought to myself; I will just whip up a selection of Ethiopian dishes, buy some injera from the restaurant down the street and invite everyone I know. How much garlic does it take to create an Ethiopian feast for fifty anyway? Well I found out last week as I shopped and chopped and simmered away for four days in preparation for the big party last Friday night in Vancouver.
The email invitation included enticing door prizes, brought from Addis and one lucky guest got to take home the newest Teddy Afro CD “Tiker Sew” that has been filling the Addis airwaves since its release last winter
Once the RSVPs started to come in, I realized the party should move to the common room in my condominium to accommodate the crowd. This was encouraging but…how much food should I prepare?
Here’s what I did to create my Ethiopian feast:
1. Buy a LOT of garlic, ginger, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, split peas and lentils, potatoes, beets, squash, greens such as kale, spinach and chard, salad greens and cooking oil and borrow some extra large pots from the neighbours
2. Make a huge batch of garlic-ginger paste to flavour many of the dishes, following recipes from a cookbook titled The Recipe of Love- an Ethiopian Cookbook, written by Toronto restaurant owner Aster Ketsela Belayneh
Mesir Wet (Lentil Stew) uses a LOT of the spice mix berbere (pronounced ber-ber-ray) which can have up to a dozen ingredients all sun dried, pounded together, dried again and then ground to a fine powder. I was fortunate that my landlady Almaz gifted me with a kilo of her home made blend just before I flew to Vancouver for the summer and it has since been distributed to numerous friends to enjoy their own taste of Ethiopia
3. Soak split peas, wash and rinse lentils and stew them up with tons of onions and garlic-ginger paste that has been sauteed in oil
The menu included 5 vegetarian “Wets” or stews made with lentils (mesir), split peas (kek), mixed greens (gomen), beets and potatoes (keyseir bedinich), pumpkin (dubba) plus a salad and beef tibs. Snack foods of spiced popcorn, and two types of kollo (one made with roasted barley and peanuts) were also served.
4. Plan the menu to include some hot and some not to satisfy varied tastes and tolerances for hot chillis
Those two large jars on the right hold my supply of berbere and and the even hotter blend called Mit’mita made from massive amounts of red hot chillis sun dried in my own front yard in Addis Ababa. Guests got small samples to take home…
5. Make at least one dish for the really brave ones who want a new taste challenge and bragging rights!
Chillis stuffed with chopped onions marinated in lime juice
6. Introduce an easy new fusion food that people can try at home. Make labels for all the dishes so it is easy for people to know what’s what.
My VSO friend and colleague in Addis, Judy Price, invented this popcorn, using locally available ingredients. Simply add the spice to the oil before you pop the corn and it will be infused with flavour. With Mit’mita it is wise to be cautious because a little goes a very long way!
7. Enlist the support of a creative friend (thanks Jana!) to help with decorating the room and making photo displays for people to get a glimpse of what I have seen in my two years volunteering in Ethiopia. Naturally the colour scheme was red, yellow and green – the colours of the Ethiopian flag!
Don’t forget the injera!
The injera made here in Canada has about 50% teff grains, 25% oats and 25% millet I was told by the restaurant owner I bought it from. Injera forms the plate and spoon to eat with; it is highly nutritious and very filling
8. Set everything on the table and welcome the guests!
9. Give them some conversation pieces!
It was too hot to wear it, but I displayed the traditional embroidered dress I had been given by the Woldia teachers last year at the farewell dinner. Tibs were on the menu at that event…
Luna, the sweet little dog who lives down the hall, came along with her people and added to the fun!
Guests dig in to some new taste experiences
Close up of a guest’s selection.
This menu included 6 vegetarian dishes and one made with beef, called sega tibs. Unlike at my June party in Addis, I was unable to get a small sheep to slaughter in the backyard here due to Vancouver city by-laws!
I was thrilled that Zerefa, my Ethiopian-Canadian good friend and neighbour from Woldia was able to come; she is here for a few months to visit her family and friends
A simple dessert of pure fresh fruits found in Ethiopia – papaya, watermelon and pineapple
This party was a chance to see many people I would not otherwise have been able to see while home for a few short weeks. The preparations also provided me with some new experiential learning. As I stood over the hot stove for days, I thought about how much time Ethiopian women need to sustain their traditional lifestyle. This way of cooking is very nutritious but is also incredibly labour intensive.
Often families in rural areas keep their girls from school because they are needed at home to help with the domestic work. That’s one of the challenges our Gender Directorate at the Ministry of Education is trying to address. Helping parents and community leaders see the value in education for girls. Some incremental progress has been made over the past ten years and the gender parity index (ratio of girls to boys) in lower primary school sits at about 0.97 but the gap widens rapidly going up the grades. Add in child marriage, abduction, rampant sexual harassment and the life of a female can be pretty tough in Ethiopia. I admire those who are able to thrive. I’ve been pleased over the past year, working in my volunteer position as a Gender Advisor at the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, to meet with a number of those staffing gender offices at colleges and universities and see how much they are doing to create safer, supportive and success-focused learning environments for female students.
At the party a good sum was raised for Cuso International and I am very very thankful to all my very generous friends, neighbours and colleagues who donated either at the event or online. Anyone who still wants to donate can do so by clicking here and following the simple directions for online or mail in donations.
I cannot tell you how much it means to feel so supported by people back home and I carry this with me in my heart as I head back in just over two weeks for my third and final year as a Cuso International volunteer in Ethiopia.
Volunteering can also be a lot of fun! Thanks to my friend Nilofer who took many of these pictures and to the crew who rolled up their sleeves and made the clean-up seem like magic!
I am thrilled that my fund raising goal has almost been achieved! Today I got an encouraging message from Tara, the Cuso fundraiser in Ottawa: “Thanks so much for helping pay-it-forward! We are able to send more volunteers thanks to your efforts.”
Oh, and by the way, I used up one full pound of garlic with my menu!
Wow! Sounds like a wonderful party and EXCEPTIONAL FOOD (as would be expected from you), sorry we missed it. Linda and Stan
The mesir and kek were my favourites. It was a wonderful meal.
Fantastic stuff – really looking forward to lovely wot when we visit next year. Good journey back.
an Ethiopian myself leaving abroad, and seeing the pics and the way you beautifully described the whole thing, has me looking for the nearest Ethiopian food!
and the nearest is in my kitchen and will go at it in gusto tonight!
ps. for the garlic … you know what i do? …
i mix, say 300gm of garlic, 300gm of ginger, cut them up in large chunks, add a bit of olive oil to the mix, and use the mixer (just a few rounds .. so that it will not liquefy, but will cut it to small sizes, as if by a knife) … keep ‘the ingredient” in the fridge, and it as my standard stuff for any Ethiopian dish that i yearn for.
keep up the good blog flowing!!
Belay.
Thanks for the suggestion Belay – I did that with the garlic-ginger in the food processor too as it saves so much time. Hope you are enjoying some tasty Ethiopian food! Am back in Addis now for my last year.