Fit-jera

The berebere depletion began when we moved beyond zigni.  G'at and then fit-fit rapidly depleted the supply.  We embraced dhilik and began thinking about ways to procure more berbere other than taking a plane to Eritrea.  We have learned that the Ethiopians have the best berebere and the Yeminis have the worst.  We now know that Abay gets 7 spices ground to make the berbere that she brings but of course we have no idea what they are.  We planned to go to the Indian spice store so that we could make dhilik - desperate times call for desperate measures.  But fortunately on April 15th, the Ethiopian store will receive a new shipment of bebere...so we just have to hold out two more weeks.

In the intereim we're making it stretch.

I've been sick for the last 10 days...have I rested as I should...of course not, that's why it's been 10 days and counting.  I haven't cooked much but I was too tickled with the kitcha fit-fit (1/2 teff, 1/2 barley) I made last week; now that my friend has had injera fit-fit, she's no longer interested in the other stuff.  She can't believe that her mother never made this stuff as she was growing up.  Because Abay is older, she has been eating a lot more traditional foods, but now we're really additcted. 

Abay says she'll show me how to make injera.  I hope so, because I made some qulwah and the bread I bought was not exactly fresh so the next day the injera was not going to work.  My friend suggested that I mix it into the qulwah and although that's essentially how I like the bread, I didn't want to start off that way, so I made a mock fit-fit. 

I sauteed onions, added a tiny bit of dhilik and rejuvenated the bread...I served it alongside the qulwah and it was delicious.

My daughter has been asking for shiro for ages...now that I have a little berbere, I was able to make some using the besam.  Abay has also suggested that we can make shiro by cooking chick peas with onions and berbere, then smashing.  I made the shiro and then did the same thing with the injera (which has been in the refrigerator since Monday)...that's when my daughter called it "fit-jera."