Saturday, February 10, 2007

2007 Pullet Surprise Entry for Poultry Excellence

My friends over at Peanut Butter Etouffee are sponsoring an event called the The 2007 Pullet Surprise for Poultry Excellence.

This event is in celebration of 10,000 visits to their site. All I have to do is post a poultry recipe which is one of my favorites and guaranteed to please. When I first read about this event my thoughts included two different chicken preps I wanted to showcase. One was chicken cooked in a clay baking dish and the other is obviously what I'm posting about, an Ethiopian inspired dish called "Doro Wat" or simply spicy braised chicken stew. May I confess that I had not made this dish prior to today. Weeks ago I did surf the net for recipes and info on how to prepare this dish. I did make my own Berbere, a hot pepper seasoning which is a combination of spices and heat used in many Ethiopian dishes. From many recipes I present my version of Doro Wat.



I adapted a recipe from Recipezaar for the berbere

Berbere
1 teaspoon Ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon Ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground coriander
2 tablespoons Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground fenugreek seeds
1 1/4 cups Cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon Grated nutmeg
1/2 cup Paprika
1/4 teaspoon Ground cloves
1 tsp Turmeric
1 teaspoon Fresh ground black pepper

Toast the ground spices together over a low heat for 4 to 5 minutes: ginger, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and allspice. Shake or stir to prevent burning. Add the salt, cayenne pepper, paprika and fresh ground black pepper and continue toasting and stirring for 10 to 15 more minutes. Do not burn.

Store in tightly covered glass jar.
Refrigerated it is good for 5 or 6 months.

Makes 1 1/2 cups.

For the Doro Wat, I couldn't find single recipe so I improvised and came up with this one which rocks. It's not often that you taste something you cook and say "damn that's good". For this I did. For this I give a must make again and again-it was that good. Note it is not diet food. I used butter and ghee plus I kept the skin of the chicken on.



Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew)

1 whole chicken halved
1 lemon- juiced
8 ounces Tomato paste
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 Stick butter
3 Tb Ghee
4 Hard boiled eggs (or more- one per serving)
3 medium size onions coarsely chopped
1 medium size bell pepper coarsely chopped
4 Cloves garlic minced
1 teaspoon Ground black pepper
3 Tb prepared berbere

Make red pepper paste by combining tomato sauce, red wine, berbere. Reserve.

Score each chicken half slightly with a knife. Soak in lemon juice plus enough water to cover for about 15 minutes.



In a large stew pot, melt the butter and ghee, then saute the onions and garlic for about five minutes. Add bell pepper and saute about 3-5 minutes mores.


Add red pepper paste stirring occasionally while the mixture simmers about 15 minutes. Add enough water to keep mixutre a stew consistency.


Place chicken halves in pot coating well with the sauce. Continue to simmer, adding enough water to maintain the consistency of a thick soup. When chicken is half done, after about 20 minutes, put in the hard boiled eggs.



Cover and continue cooking until the chicken is tender. The dish is ready when the oil has risen to the top. Add black pepper and let sit until slightly cooled. Adjust to taste with salt.

Makes enough to serve 4 to 6.

10 comments:

sylvie1950 said...

P.S. Next day leftovers taste even better. Yum!

maltese parakeet said...

[drool] i've been wanting to try ethiopian food recently; all those places on fairfax calling my name. this may be even easier!

sylvie1950 said...

MP, it's a start. I was missing all the fixins that go with Ethiopian food such as injera bread, lentils and collard greens. However in my soul fusion tradition, served with rice it is great also.

Anonymous said...

Looks awseome! How spicy was it? In our terms, not regular people's..

sylvie1950 said...

SG, it wasn't very hot though my taste buds are very tolerant to heat. Though the Berbere has a lot of cayenne in it, the amount you add to the recipe wasn't that much. For those faint at heart to heat, I still don't think it was that hot.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your Pullet win! I have never had Ethiopian food; but by the looks of this, it is time to start!

Anonymous said...

Wow. Your food looks so damn good!!! Hey, I found a place I think you would be really into. It's a tiny, hidden jamaican grille, brand new, family owned, and wowaweewah it's good! So fresh. So clean! It will make your belly feel LOVED. Ahhh. I would love to keep it to myself, but I want them to do really well, so I am spreading the gospel.

Front Page Grille (behind the dry cleaners)
1117 w. manchester bl #C
Inglewood, CA 90301

(I don't think its been reviewed by anyone yet its still so on the downlow).

Enjoy!

sylvie1950 said...

Thannk you all. This recipe turned out better than I could have ever hoped for.

Anon, thanks for the heads up on the Jamaican Grille. I haven't been there yet, but will for sure make it a must do destination.

La Vida Dulce said...

Congratulations! It looks so delicious, gotta try this one soon.

Anonymous said...

Looks great and I enjoyed the site. Is there any chance we (send a cow) a charity working with poor families in Ethiopia couls use the picture of Cooked chicken Doro wat for one of our quarterly magazines to our supporters. You can check us out at http://www.sendacow.org.uk/ please send the image to anne.rowberry@sendacow.org.uk
Many thanks for reading this