Today was a no-cooking day since we were in Ann Arbor for the Michigan homecoming game. The pre-game alumni tailgate party was in the field house, and local restaurants contributed food in addition to chefs grilling mini burgers, hot dogs, and wings. On the healthier side were two different salads and vegies with dip. Also, there were no sodas (pop), but instead hot cider, tea, coffee, lemonade and water.
Even though it was in the mid-30s, the sun was out and it was a great game day. Luckily we ate at the tailgate because a large hot chocolate in the stadium was $10.
After Michigan won (34-10) we went to the Blue Nile, which is an Ethiopian restaurant that has great food and a pleasant jazz band. If you go there, ask for a basket table, because it’s much more interesting and authentic than a booth. They arrange the foods on a large, shared plate, and everyone eats the delicious variety of foods with small pieces of bread directly off of the plate. They explain what to do if it’s your first time. I took a blurry picture of the center plate but hopefully you get the idea.
All of the information about their method of cooking is from their website. The Ethiopian diet has very little fat because, when there was no refrigeration, techniques were developed not only to preserve foods but to maintain the authenticity of their ancient cooking traditions as well.
Lamb is a fatty meat and special effort has to be made to remove the fat. First, the initial fat is trimmed, then the lamb is boiled and the fat is skimmed. The lamb is rinsed, then cooked in niter kibbe (butter), alecha-style. To make niter kibbe, they start with high quality butter and boil it with more than ten different herbs. The top layer of fat is separated, leaving a purified, flavorful, low-fat preparation that creates is a sweet and tasty finished meat dish that is low in saturated fats without noticeable aftertaste.
The skin is removed from chicken and the meat is marinated in fresh lemon juice overnight. The acid from the lemon breaks down the fat of the chicken. The chicken is then rinsed and cooked in either a spicier berbere sauce, or the lighter alecha-style sauce. The fat-trimmed beef is cooked in purified butter and berbere sauce to make a tantalizing barbeque-like beef stew called zilzil-wat.
The vegetables served include spicy and green lentils, spicy and yellow peas, a potato/carrot mixture, mustard greens, and cabbage. Injera (Ethiopian bread) is made with self-rising wheat flour, or teff, and water. No dairy products, eggs, or shortening are used. It makes a thin, spongy type of bread – thinner than a tortilla – that works well to pick up all of your food. I hope you’ll have the opportunity to give it all a try sometime.
