/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>7533773
All major Ethiopian wot recipes begin with extremely finely chopped shallots (I tend to just grate them), I then add niter kibbeh/seasoned oil followed by a cooking down period using a dash of baking soda to quicken caramelizing (it must break down almost into a paste so who wants to wait and stir forever when baking soda quickens it) and a half teaspoon of fish sauce + two table spoons of ginger juice freshly ground.

This must be dark like red wine from reduction but not burnt, it's a process without the baking soda. It adds body, mellow sweetness and a baseline savory taste that makes the "meat" of the dish.

I then add quartered mushrooms cooked for five minutes finished off with basically a gram marsala.

Habesha cuisine doesn't often have "secret" ingredients so on the surface it looks really simple but it's all in the building and layering of flavors through reductions. The use of fish sauces, bone broths and other things are just personal preferences I appreciate but used sparingly like devils dung so it doesn't overpower.

Somali food to me is rather simplistic. It's basic Yemeni, Habesha and Indian food, the only point of going to a Somali market is for spices or canjero.