blue artichoke

I picked Ethiopian food for our dinner Sunday night, so we ate.... nothing.
Oh, I'm just kidding. It's a bad joke.
We really ate African Chicken in a Spicy Red Sauce; what makes the African chicken specifically Ethiopian is the spice blend, called berbere. I scaled down the spice blend recipe because I don't cook Ethiopian food often and didn't want a lot of leftover spice blend. I also served spicy okra, which isn't specifically Ethiopian, but African in general. Despite the spiciness in the recipe titles, this was a surprisingly unspicy meal. GC even called it bland, but, as someone sensitive to spiciness, I would say it was merely mild. In either case, I won't be making this dish again.

African Chicken in Spicy Red Sauce

I scaled down the berbere spice blend by 1/4, and had ~1t. leftover. I used hot chili powder in the berbere, but still it wasn't fiery. The chicken was good, but had that sticky texture that happens when chicken is boiled. There was a ridiculous amount of sauce leftover; the sauce to chicken ratio heavily favors the sauce. I kept the excess sauce thinking I might use the leftover berbere spice as a rub for grilled chicken, and serve the sauce along with it.

CHICKEN:
2 chicken breast halves, skinned (about 1/2 pound)
2 chicken drumsticks, skinned (about 1/2 pound)
2 chicken thighs, skinned (about 3/4 pound)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups chopped onion (2 medium)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons Berbere
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (6-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
4 lemon wedges

Place chicken in a shallow dish; drizzle with juice, and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cover and marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and garlic; cook 5 minutes (do not brown), stirring frequently. Add 2 teaspoons Berbere, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, butter, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom; cook 1 minute. Add wine, broth, and tomato paste; stir until well blended. Add chicken mixture; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 50 minutes or until chicken is tender, turning chicken occasionally. Stir in cilantro. Serve with lemon wedges.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces chicken, about 1 cup sauce, and 1 lemon wedge)

CALORIES 373 (24% from fat); FAT 9.8g (sat 3.6g,mono 2.7g,poly 1.8g); PROTEIN 53.2g; CHOLESTEROL 175mg; CALCIUM 72mg; SODIUM 848mg; FIBER 3.6g; IRON 4mg; CARBOHYDRATE 17.3g Note: Nutritional analysis includes 1 teaspoon Berbere per serving.

Berbere
2 tablespoons ground red pepper
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.

Yield: 1/4 cup (serving size: 1 teaspoon)
CALORIES 6 (30% from fat); FAT 0.2g (sat 0.0g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 0.2g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 6mg; SODIUM 1mg; FIBER 0.5g; IRON 0.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 1.1g

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2006

Spicy Okra

If habanero chiles are too spicy for you, use a Serrano or jalapeño chile instead. Rinsing your okra gives it a cleaner taste and texture. I don't know if habaneros are too spicy for me, but I had a jalapeño, so I used it. Sometimes I get distracted when I'm cooking, and don't follow the recipe too well. This time, I diced the jalapeño into the tiniest little green specks, then realized I was supposed to throw it in whole, and discard it before serving. I'd go blind and batty trying to pick out the jalapeño specks, so I left them in, and by doing so, made the dish worth eating. Without the occasional piquant heat on the tip of my tongue from the jalapeños, it would have been a bland dish. This dish was OK, but I probably won't make it again. I'm sure there are much better spicy okra-and-tomato recipes for me to try.

2 (10-oz) packages frozen cut okra
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 (14-oz) can diced tomatoes
1 fresh habanero chile, pierced 3 times with a fork
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Rinse okra in a colander under hot water.

Heat oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté onion, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes (including juice) and chile and boil, stirring, until tomatoes are softened and liquid is reduced by half, 5 to 10 minutes. Add okra and cook, gently stirring, until okra is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in salt and pepper and discard chile.

Makes 4 servings.
Gourmet, March 2004

I had a stupid freak "accident" while making the okra dish. I'm sure you know that handling chilies can be painful, as the Capsicum oil gets on your hands and can produce a burning sensation. Some people (the smart ones) wear gloves when handling chilies. It seems excessive for cutting up one single jalapeño, and I always wash my hands immediately after handling a chile. I guess I did a poor job of hand-washing, because when I stuck my finger in my ear, it immediately started burning. Like, down in my ear. How the heck do you wash your ear canal? Not by squirting water or an alcohol solution for swimmer's ear, that's for sure; those solutions just spread the oil farther in and around the ear. Talk about pain! I guess it got into my inner ear because it started to make me dizzy. I remembered that the best thing for cooling down a burning mouth when eating spicy food isn't water or beer, which just transport the oil to new areas, but milk, which bonds with the oil. So, I tipped some milk into my ear and sloshed it around a bit. Immediate relief! When you next find yourself with spicy chilies in your ear, milk is the best remedy, though you'll wake up the next day with dried milk crust in your ear. That's easily washed out with water.

Getting to Know All About You: What stupid thing have you done recently?