Ethiopian Hummus (Elibet)

The broad beans paste is an appetizing and appealing side-dish. In Ethiopia, broad beans are cooked in many ways. This is one of my favorite dishes.

Ingredients:

3 cups dried broad Beans* (baqueella)
1 cup Sunflower seeds (Suff)
4 tablespoons lemon juice)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 cups or more water

Preparation:

1st Step: Rinse the sunflower seeds with cold water; in a cooking pot, cover it in cold water; boil for 15 minutes or until soft; strain in colander, discard the liquid; place the sunflower seeds in a food processor (blender), add 5 cups of cold water; grind and mash until all the seeds are crushed; strain and pour the sunflower juice into a cooking pot;

2nd Step: Rinse the broad beans and add to the sunflower juice; cook it for 30 minutes or until it is very soft.

3rd Step: Place the cooked beans in a blender or food processor. Add garlic, oil, salt, lemon, 1 cup or more the boiled sunflower liquid, and two cube ice. Blend it for 4-5 minutes until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

4th Step: Place the Elibet (Hummus) in serving bowl or in a container; Serve it immediately with Injera, pita bread or any bread of your choice. Keep the rest in fridge.
*As broad beans come in green, beige or brown, use the beige to get the creamy color.
Serving 6.
For nutritional facts of this recipe please visit http://www.recipezaar.com/416617 . For vitamin content please click on "Print Recipe" on aforementioned site.

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Halloween Layer dip

I had requested spider recipes, and Amy called and gave me a few suggestions, ( I think this was at the point when she couldn't post because she had forgotten her password or something....) Anyways, she suggested layer dip with olive spiders, and I decided to give it a try. I piped on sour cream to make the web and cut up jumbo black olives to look like the spiders. I think it turned out pretty awesome.

Aaand, lets get a close up of my creepy friend in the middle there....

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Chris's Salsa

By request:

5 qts tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 lg green tomatoes, chopped
10 jalepeno peppers, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
6 onions, chopped
2 cups celery (about 1/2 stalk), chopped
1/4 cup saltscant
1/4 cup honey (it says 3 Tbls, but I just usually dump in about 1/4 cup)
2 green peppers, chopped
1-2 cans tomato paste to thicken it up, if desired (I add 1 or 2, and it's still pretty thin.)

Tomatoes- wash them, and then put them in a pot of boiling water until the skins crack a little. Take them out, let them cool a minute and then peel the skin off, and cut the stem out, and cut any bad spots out. Throw them in the food processor. I do the tomatoes first because it gives me how many batches I'm gonna make. One 5 gallon pail of tomatoes makes about 2 batches, give or take. All of the veggies get chopped up in the food processor. Do the jalepenos last, because it's just easier to get everything else done, in the pots, and then do those. Be sure you wear gloves and don't touch your face!!! After you have everything in a pot, bring it to a boil. Let it simmer for at least 15 mins (but you can let it go all day, too, just don't let it burn. Stir it!) Here, you can play with it to adjust heat and flavor. This recipe, as is, is pretty spicy. I water bath can them. Quarts need 50 mins, pints need 40. One batch makes 8ish quarts, depending on how long you let it boil down.

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Taco Dip

Every Christmas, growing up, we enjoyed this wonderful taco dip on Christmas Eve. My aunt, Teri Kukachka, made it, and she spread it in a Santa-shaped platter. I don't have a Santa-shaped platter, so I put it in a Christmas tree-shaped platter. I'd say it is about a 12"x8" size.

8 oz cream cheese, softened

8 oz sour cream

8 oz guacamole or avacado dip (use store-bought or make your own)

Lowry's Seasoning (garlic, salt & pepper)

Cream these ingredients and spread on platter.

taco sauce or salsa (I use Pace Mild Picante Sauce)

shredded lettuce

shredded cheddar cheese

sliced green olives

chopped onions (omit if you don't like crunchy little onions in your dip - I leave them out)

diced tomatoes

Spread a thin layer of taco sauce or salsa on top. Add a layer of each of the other ingredients on top of each other, in order. It looks quite festive, as well as being tasty.

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Spider Web Dip

I saw this in Taste of Home. Disclaimer, I have not tried it. But, I do know the recipe portion of it quite well. This is really just a creative idea to do with the recipe. I figured Nancy could maybe use it.

Make guacamole. (We all know mom's, right? Is it on here somewhere?)

Put it in a round pan or plate.

Put some sour cream in a plastic bag, cut the corner, and pipe circles around the guacamole. Run a toothpick from the center out, to give it a web design.

Take some colossal olives. Pipe two small dots on half for eyes. Place two next to each other on the web. (Repeat for as many spiders you want on there.) Add black food coloring (like, the real stuff, because that's the only way to actually get black), and draw legs on the spiders.

My other thought was, you could take the method of making lots of things with raisins in it. And, at random points during the evening yelling "ugh, I just ate a dead spider. It was in my cookie!" That would make everything with a raisin, also a spider-themed food. For added effect, have one or two guests also participate.

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BLT Pizza

This is an invention of yours truly, with a little help from mom. This summer, I did the linger longer food every week for the singles branch. I wanted to make this salad stuff I had at some random baby shower in Worthington, but it was in cute little pastry cups, which i could not afford for the linger longer. so it got all twisted around and made into BLT Pizza!!

You need:
Cresecent Rolls
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Bacon

Okay, its like vegetable pizza, where you take pillsbury crescent rolls (You know, the little tubes that *POP* when you squeeze em) and bake them flat on a cookie sheet. Then you make an amazingly unhealthy spread with cream cheese and sour cream.

Then you pile lettuce on top ( I liked using romaine, because its pretty :) ) and some tomatoes, and some bacon pieces and VOILA! bacon lettuce tomato pizza. Its amazing.

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onion dip

Personally, I think the new year doesn't happen until you actually consume an entire container of french onion dip and ruffles potatoe chips.

And you have to get the ruffles with ridges. Because the ridges hold more of the onion dip goodness and stay crunchy. If you get the non ridgy kind then the chips get soggy between the dip and your mouth.

Its easy.

1 container of sour cream

1 packet of lipton french onion soup

mix it up. well. don't let any pockets of spice collect up, and make sure to scrape the bottom so that it mixes up entirely.

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Salami, Pickles & Cream Cheese Appetizer

Aaron requested this recipe be put up, so here it is. It is a favorite holiday appetizer, as long as it is made right. An example of making it wrong is making it with Oscar Meyer salami instead of deli salami. We learned by experience that this does not work. So, when the grocery store is out of deli salami, find another grocery store.

Ingredients:

Salami or Cotto Salami circles

Small pickles or pickle spears, the same length as the diameter of the salami

Cream Cheese

Toothpicks

Slather cream cheese on a piece of salami. Place a pickle on it and roll it up. Secure with a toothpick. Done!

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Egg Rolls

We have some friends, Debbie and Scott Bak, who served in the Lao Branch here in the Twin Cities. The Lao Branch is known for its annual egg roll fundraiser. Scott invited me over to learn to make them one day:

Package of Spring Home TYJ Spring Roll Pastry (This is the brand they use)

Filling:
Cellophane Noodles - Prepare according to Package
Ground Pork, Browned and Drained
White & Purple Onions, chopped
Carrots, Chopped
Cabbage, Chopped
Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce (See previous recipe)
Pepper (Ground)

Beaten Egg (to seal egg roll wraps

325 for Ten Minutes to bake. Spray them with Pam (cooking spray) first.

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Fish Steak Tartar (Yeasa Kitfo)

Fish is my favorite dish. I started preparing, serving and eating fish steak tartar over 25 years ago when I was in Senegal (West Africa) where fish was very fresh, direct from Atlantic Ocean. Fish Steak Tartar is a delicious appetizer dish.

Ingredients:

2 lb tuna or salmon or halibut (fresh, top quality fish like in a sushi restaurant)
2½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon shallot or red onion (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon awaze (mild red chili pepper paste)**
1 lemon or lime
1 hot green pepper (thinly sliced)
Black pepper to taste

Preparation:

1st Step: Finely chopped the onion; and thinly sliced green pepper; squeeze the lemon or lime;

2nd Step: Mix the olive oil, shallot, awaze, lemon juice, black pepper and salt;

3rd Step: Remove the skin from the fish, pat dry;

4th Step: Chop the fish into very small cubes using a very sharp knife;

5th Step: Add the fish cubes, mix it well and garnish it with sliced green peppers;

6th Step: Keep it in fridge for few minutes and serve it cold.

6 servings

P.S. You may use Mitmita instead of Awaze but without lemon juice.

* You will find these spices in Ethiopian shops/groceries

** click here to find awaze recipe

For nutritional facts of this recipe please visit http://www.recipezaar.com/374384. For vitamin content please click on "Print Recipe" on aforementioned site.

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Sausage Dip Stuff

Since neither Aaron or Stefany have had a chance to post this, I thought I'd step up. But the credit goes to Stefany's family, I believe.

1 tube of ground sausage
8 oz cream cheese
1 can rotel (drained)

Fry the sausage. In crockpot (or this can be done on the stove if you watch it carefully) combine sausage, cream cheese and rotel. Let it get all melty and stir it. Serve with corn chips.

This is Matt's favorite for tail gaiting. Or at least our version, where we sit on our couch at home and watch the game, rather than paying 20+ dollars for bad seats at a BYU game.

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Bruscetta

I miss cooking. I used to have weekly parties, very informal, in which everyone I new who had nothing else to do would show up at my place on a saturday night, because they knew that if they brough a random ingredient, I would add it to whatever meal I was cooking, and we would all end up with a gourmet, definitely better than any college kid ever eats, kind of a dinner. Then we would play a ridiculous party game and laugh until 2 am. The thing is, cooking is no fun if you don't have people to cook for, so the rest of the week I would eat ramen and cold cereal, always looking forward to the saturday night party, that nobody ever planned, and it was better for it. Undoubtedly, someone would call satuday afternoon and ask to come over, and I would say "bring some baguettes!" From there, anyone who came by, called, or who we felt inspired to call, would get the invite and be told to "bring something to eat, or an ingredient for something to eat. We'll figure it out when you get here." That is how you make bruscetta. It is also the best way to eat it.

There are, however, a few basics you need.

Olive Oil (all mormons have it on hand.)
Vinegar (prefferably flavored, i prefer balsamic, but apple or otherwise fruity works)
Fresh tomatoes.

Now for the variables.

Spices. (salt, sugar, rubbed sage, mustard powder, lemon pepper, herbes de provence, basil, any seasing blends you have laying around, and garlic.)

Avocado
Cheese chunks
peppers
onion (whatever kind)
cucumbers
lettuce
artichoke hearts
tofu chunks
bacon
water chestnuts
radishes
crasins
palm hearts
hot dog chunks (it sounds gross, but if you chop them up enough, you don't get the texture, just the flavor.)

This list can continue to include anything you might want in a salad that will absorb the flavor of the vinegar, but it all must be cubed or chopped. little chunks people, so they can blend together and be spooned onto bread.

use a 2:1 ratio on the Oil:vinegar. If you have good mustard (not the yellow american stuff, but maybe grey poupon, with the seeds in it even) blend a couple of tablespoons of that in too. Then pur it over all of the stuff you have chopped up, and mix it so you have a salsa like consistency (chunky, fresh salsa.) Then season to taste. If you think it needs more salt, add a little sugar first to see if that helps. Mom puts a little extra sugar in more things than we know. A teaspoon here and there makes everything taste more like home.

My favorite blend ever was tomatoes, chives, white onions, avacado, mozerella, and a mustard vinaigrette with rubbed sage and lemon pepper. Two of my roommates got engaged over that particular batch of bruschetta.

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Ethiopian Spicy Cheese Dip

Spicy, delicious and appetizing side-dish.

Ingredients:

2lb farmers cheese (unsalted)
2 tablespoons clarified butter (Nitir Kebe) **
2 teaspoons Mitimita (cayenne pepper) **
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon cardamom powder (Korerima) *
¼ teaspoon White pepper

Preparation:

1st Step: In a bowl, flake the cheese with forks;

2nd Step: In small pot, on a lower heat, melt the butter; remove from heat; add Mitmita (cayenne pepper), cardamom, white pepper and garlic powder;

3rd Step: Pour the melted spiced butter on the cheese; mix well until completely marinated;

4th Step: Keep it in the fridge and serve it cold.


8 Servings

* You will find these spices in Ethiopian or Indian shops/groceries
** Please click here to see how to prepare Clarified Butter (Nitir Kebe)

P.S. If home-made cheese is needed, boil 2 gallons of buttermilk at a lower heat, with a pinch of salt and one lemon juice, stirring continuously. leave it to cool, strain and discard the water; keep it in fridge.
For nutritional facts of this recipe please visit http://www.recipezaar.com/347075. For vitamin content please click on "Print Recipe" on aforementioned site.

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Ethiopian Spiced Beef Jerky (Quwanta)

Spiced Beef jerky (Quwanta) is served as snack or appetizer. It is my husband's favorite snack.

Ingredients:

5 lbs (2 kg) beef- top or bottom round
2 tablespoon chili powder (berbere) or mild chili pepper paste (Awaze)
3 tablespoons dry wine or sherry
1tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon cardamom powder (Korerima)
½ teaspoon black pepper
A pinch of salt

Preparation:

1st Step: Remove fat; cut the meat in long strips with zigzag shapes;

2nd Step: Mix chili pepper powder (berbere) or (Awaze), wine, oil, false cardamom, black pepper and salt;

3rd Step: Marinate the meat with mixed dressing;

4th Step: Place the meat on food dehydrator or jerky maker; cover and dehydrate until crisp dry;

5th Step: Break the dried meat in small pieces; keep the pieces in a tight glass jar.

10 Serving.

P.S. Adding Quwanta (Beef Jerky) while cooking vegetables or legumes give good flavor.

For nutritional facts of this recipe please visit http://www.recipezaar.com/321136. For vitamin content please click on "Print Recipe" on aforementioned site.

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Spicy Grilled Fish Fillets

Fish spiced with Ethiopian chili powder (berbere).

Ingredients:

1 lb fish fillets (base, halibut, flounder, etc)
2 teaspoon hot red chili pepper powder (berbere)
3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil or vegetable oil
½ cup breadcrumbs (finely crushed)
½ cup buttermilk
1 fresh lemon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
Salt to taste (if required)

Preparation:

1st Step: Cut the fish fillets in strips; squeeze the lemon; rinse the fillets with fresh lemon juice; pat dry;

2nd Step: Mix the hot red chili pepper powder; ground allspice, breadcrumbs;

3rd Step: Rub the fillets with two tablespoon of oil;

4th Step: Dip the fillets in the buttermilk and then into the breadcrumbs, covering all sides;

5th Step: On a grill rack, lay the fish fillets side by side; lightly coat the fillets with one tablespoon of oil; keep the fillets standing until coating sticks;

6th Step: In a preheat 400 oven, grill the fillets for 15 minutes or until golden brown; or in a medium heat, on a greased pan, fry the fillets turning sides, until golden brown.

Serve it warm.

4 servings

For nutritional facts of this recipe please visit http://www.recipezaar.com/353533. For vitamin content please click on "Print Recipe" on aforementioned site.

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Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

1 lb sweet potatoes
4 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)
1 teaspoon dry rosemary (crushed thinly)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or vegetable oil
¼ red chili powder (berbere) or cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation:

1st Step: Peel and rinse the sweet potatoes, cut in slices or as desired;

2nd Step: Rinse the bell peppers and cut in slices or as desired;

3nd Step: Mix the oil, chili pepper, black pepper and salt;

4th Step: Marinate the sweet potatoes and bell peppers with the mixed dressing for 2-5 minutes;

5th Step: Place the potatoes on a broiler or non-stick baking pan; sprinkle the rosemary and mix;

6th Step: In a 350 degree preheat oven, broil or bake the potatoes and peppers for 20 - 25 minutes.

Serve it hot or cold.

6 Servings

For nutritional facts of this recipe please visit http://www.recipezaar.com/293582. For vitamin content please click on "Print Recipe" on aforementioned site.

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Grilled Lamb Shish Kebab

This tenderized grilled meat is my favorite dish. It is great for any occasion.

Ingredients:

2lb boneless lamb leg
½ cup red wine
2 Bell peppers
1 red onion or shallot
4 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1½ teaspoon chili pepper powder (berbere)
½ teaspoon black pepper
Salt to taste

Preparation:

1st Step: Cut the meat in cubes or as desired;

2nd Step: Mix the wine, oil, garlic, chili pepper, black pepper and salt; whisk well;

3rd Step: In a dip bowl, Combine the meat and the mixture; Keep it in the fridge for an hour to marinate;

4th Step: Cut the vegetables as desired and gently mix the vegetables with the marinated meat;

5th Step: Thread the meat and the vegetables on skewers; grill or broil for 12-15 minutes.

Serve it hot.

6 Servings

If using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them in water at least one hour before adding using them.

For nutritional facts of this recipe please visit http://www.recipezaar.com/355201. For vitamin content please click on "Print Recipe" on aforementioned site.

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