Ethiopians celebrate Christmas, which they call Genna, on Jan. 7. We decided to have a little party ourselves. It was a completely American version of some of their traditions, but we had fun and tried some new food.I started our Ethiopian meal with a spicy toast recipe I found. It is called kategna. In Ethiopia they would make it with injera, but the recipe suggested using flour tortillas since injera is hard to find in America.
Kategna
- mix 1/4 tsp each of cayenne pepper and paprika, along with 1/2 tsp garlic powder with 1 T. of butter
- spread butter mixture on 2 flour tortillas
- put in toaster oven or under broiler until the tortillas are crisp
I used half as much spice as the recipe suggests since my kids are not crazy about hot food. We all liked this recipe. It was hot even though even I cut down on the spices. This would be part of breakfast in Ethiopia, but we used it as an appetizer.
Our main course was Doro Wat (chicken stew) pictured above.
Doro Wat
- 1 broiler chicken, 2-3 lbs cut into 8 pieces with skin removed (I just used chicken thighs because I have no clue how to cut up a whole chicken!)
- 2 cups onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- juice from 1 lemon
- 2T tomato paste
- 4-6 whole hard-boiled eggs, shells removed
- 1tsp each of ginger, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic, salt, and black pepper
Instructions
- Make several cuts in each piece of chicken with a knife. Put the chicken pieces in a bowl with the lemon juice, salt, and 1 cup water. Put in the refrigerator. Let the chicken soak for 15-30 minutes.
- Put the butter in a stew pot, add the onions and cook them until they are browned.
- Add the spices, tomato paste, and broth.
- Dry the chicken parts and add them to the stew pot. Cover the pot and cook on low for 20 minutes.
- Add the hard-boiled eggs. Spoon sauce over the eggs. Cook covered on low until the chicken is done and the sauce has thickened, about 10-20 minutes.
Serve over injera or other flat bread. (I used some multi-grain wraps as fake injera. I also cut the spices in half for this recipe.)
In Ethiopia, food is served over injera. Utensils are not used to eat, so bites of food are broken apart and rolled in injera. There were mixed reviews in our house about eating without utensils. It was a little strange, but kind of fun once the food cooled off a little. We all liked this recipe. I did skip the hard-boiled eggs. My family thought it sounded too weird, and I really wanted this to be a fun experiment, so I didn't push my luck.
This recipe is called doro wat or chicken stew, but it was more like chicken in a sauce. I ate the leftovers today for lunch over rice. It was tasty!
These recipes both came from a book titled Foods of Ethiopia by Barbara Sheen.
This is Jamison eating his Genna dinner. He really liked it. He has even requested I make it more often than just once a year for Genna.
This is Sierra sporting her Genna gift. In Ethiopia gifts are not usually given. They are certainly not the focus. If gifts are given they are small gifts of clothing. Well, in our frozen tundra sometimes small gifts of clothing don't cut it. What Sierra really needed was a big, warm winter coat! I do not know if we will always give our children gifts for eanna, but we wanted to this year as a reward. Chad and I did not wrap one Christmas gift for our kids this year. We had told them that our trip to Magic Kingdom would be their Christmas gift. It was hard not to shop for them, but we wanted to stick to our word. I was so proud that I did not hear them complain about the lack of gifts one time! Not even when other kids asked what their parents gave them for Christmas. Not even after listening to the friend list all the gifts they received. So, I thought they deserved a little reward. In sticking with the Ethiopian tradition, they each received clothes. I tried to make sure it was an item that they needed and would enjoy. They were very excited to receive the surprise.
