List of Ethiopian and Eritrean dishes and foods explained

This is a list of Ethiopian and Eritrean dishes and foods. Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisines characteristically consists of vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes, usually in the form of wat (also w'et, wot or tsebhi), a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread,^[1] which is about 50abbr=offNaNabbr=off in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour.^[1] Ethiopians and Eritreans eat exclusively with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes.^[1] Utensils are rarely used with Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine.

Ethiopian and Eritrean dishes and foods

Bread and pastry

• Dabo kolo – small pieces of fried dough, served as a snack
• Injera – a spongy, slightly sour flatbread regularly served with other dishes.
• Himbasha – wheel shaped lightly sweet bread, often flavoured with raisins and cardamom
• Samosa (also sambusa) – fried pastry stuffed with spiced lentils

Breakfast

• Fir-fir – shredded bread mixed with niter kibbeh and berbere, commonly served for breakfast
• Ga'at or genfo – a stiff porridge made from barley or wheat flour, sauced with a mixture of niter kibbeh and berbere, commonly served for breakfast

Dishes

• Ful medames – an Egyptian dish of cooked and mashed fava beans served with vegetable oil, cumin and optionally with chopped parsley, onion, garlic, and lemon juice, it is also a popular meal in Ethiopia, Eritrea and other countries.
• Gored gored – a raw cubed beef dish
• Kitfo – minced raw ground beef mixed with mitmita and niter kibbeh
• Shahan ful – stewed fava beans served with chopped fresh vegetables and spices
• Shiro – a stew with primary ingredients of powdered chickpeas or broad bean meal
• Tibs - cubes of beef in wat
• Tihlo - barley dough balls served with meat stew spiced with berbere, a Tigrayan dish
• Wat – stew that may be prepared with chicken, beef, lamb, a variety of vegetables, spice mixtures such as berbere, and niter kibbeh. Wat is traditionally eaten with injera.

Crops

• Enset – a root crop, particularly important to the south of Ethiopia^{[2] [3]}
• Teff – a grain widely cultivated and used in Eritrea and Ethiopia, where it is used to make injera or tayta. Teff accounts for about a quarter of total cereal production in Ethiopia.^[4]
• Gesho – leaves and stem used to flavour tej (mead) and tella (beer)
• Niger seed – the seeds of this herb are crushed to make an edible oil.

Sauces and spices

• Ethiopian cardamom – The spice known as korarima, Ethiopian cardamom, or false cardamom^[5] is obtained from the plant's seeds (usually dried), and is extensively used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. It is an ingredient in berbere, mitmita, awaze, and other spice mixtures, and is also used to flavor coffee.^[6]
• Berbere – usually include chili peppers, garlic, ginger, basil, korarima, rue, ajwain or radhuni, nigella, and fenugreek.^{[7] [8] [9]}
• Mitmita – a powdered seasoning mix used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine.
• Niter kibbeh – seasoned clarified butter used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking.

Beverages

See also: Coffee production in Ethiopia and Jebena.

• Coffee - A brewed drink made from Ethiopian coffee beans and used in a jebena.
• Tej – A honey wine^[10] or mead that is brewed and consumed in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
• Tella – A traditional beer from Ethiopia and Eritrea that is brewed from various grains, typically teff and sorghum. It is called siwa in Tigray and Eritrea.

See also

• Ethiopian cuisine
• Eritrean cuisine
• List of African dishes
• Outline of Ethiopia
• Outline of Eritrea

Notes and References

1. Javins, Marie. "Eating and Drinking in Ethiopia." Gonomad.com. Accessed July 2011.
2. Book: RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants . Dorling Kindersley . 2008 . 1405332964 . United Kingdom . 1136.
3. Web site: 1997 . Uses of Enset . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070819143500/http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/enset/uses.shtml . 19 August 2007 . 13 August 2007 . The 'Tree Against Hunger': Enset-Based Agricultural Systems in Ethiopia . American Association for the Advancement of Science.
4. [Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin|Gabre-Madhin, Eleni Zaude]
5.  Aframomum corrorima was published in Spices, Condiments and Medicinal Plants in Ethiopia, Their Taxonomy and Agricultural Significance. (Agric. Res. Rep. 906 & Belmontia New Series) 12:10. 1981. The specific epithet was taken from its basionym, Amomum corrorima A.Braun Web site: Aframomum corrorima information from NPGS/GRIN . GRIN . Germplasm Resources Information Network . Synonyms: (≡) Amomum corrorima A.Braun (basionym) . Taxonomy for Plants . USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program . . April 9, 2011 . June 19, 2011.
6. Web site: Natural patrimony and local communities in ethiopia: geographical advantages and limitations of a system of indications . Bernard Roussel . François Verdeaux . amp. 29th Annual Spring Symposium of Centre for African Studies . April 6–10, 2003. PDF. https://web.archive.org/web/20061126164622/http://www.ur169.ird.fr/IMG/pdf/UrbanaEthiopie_anglais.pdf. 2006-11-26. This Zingiberaceae, Aframomum corrorima (Braun) Jansen, is gathered in forests, and also grown in gardens. It is a basic spice in Ethiopia, used to flavor coffee and as an ingredient in various widely used condiments (berbere, mitmita, awaze, among others)..
7. Book: Debrawork Abate . የባህላዌ መግቦች አዘገጃጀት . Traditional Food Preparation . 2nd . 2003 . 2001 . Mega Asatame Derjet (Mega Publisher Enterprise) . . am . 22–23 .
8. Web site: Alevtina . Gall . Zerihun Shenkute . Ethiopian Traditional and Herbal Medications and their Interactions with Conventional Drugs . EthnoMed . . November 3, 2009 . January 27, 2011 .
9. Web site: Gernot . Katzer . Ajwain (Trachyspermum copticum [L.] Link) . July 20, 2010 . January 28, 2013.
10. Web site: Chemical and nutritional properties of 'tej', an indigenous Ethiopian honey wine: variations within and between production units . The Journal of Food Technology in Africa . Vol. 6, No. 3. . July–September 2001 . 13 November 2014 . Bahiru, Bekele . etal . 104–108.