1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (183 page)

About ½ cup peanut oil

2 cups beef or chicken stock, or a combination of the two

1 tablespoon coarse salt

½ medium-size lemon

About ½ cup freshly squeezed strained lemon juice

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

3 cups plain steamed white rice, for serving

1.
Remove all of the pin feathers from the duck and trim off any excess fat around the cavities. Rinse the duck under cold running water and pat it dry with paper towels. Refrigerate the duck, uncovered, overnight. This will enable the skin to dry and become taut so the fat will drain off more easily during braising.

2.
Chop the duck liver and place it in a small saucepan, along with the whole duck neck, gizzard, and heart, and half of the cloves and chile pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and cook over moderate heat until the meats lose their raw look, about 5 minutes. Add the stock and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove and discard all of the giblets except the chopped liver. Set the stock mixture aside.

3.
Preheat the oven to 450°F.

4.
Rub the inside of the duck with about 1 teaspoon of the coarse salt. Place the remaining cloves inside the duck, along with the lemon half. Using a skewer or slender knife point, prick the duck skin around the thighs and wings. Truss the duck, then rub it all over with a little of the peanut oil. Roast the duck, breast side up, in an uncovered casserole or roasting pan until it is a light golden brown, about 15 minutes.

5.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Add the stock mixture to the casserole or roasting pan. Cover the casserole or roasting pan and let the duck braise for 1 hour, basting it every 15 minutes. If the holes pierced in the thighs and wings close, pierce them again so the fat can drain off.

6.
Pour the lemon juice over the duck and sprinkle the remaining 2 teaspoons of salt and the red bell pepper over it. Cover the duck again and let it continue to braise until the juices run clear when a thigh is pierced with a knife, about 20 minutes.

7.
Transfer the duck to a platter and let it rest for about 15 minutes before carving. Meanwhile, skim the fat from the pan juices. Let the pan juices come to a boil over high heat and let boil until reduced and slightly syrupy, about 5 to 8 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt as necessary. Strain the sauce and carve the duck. Serve it with the sauce spooned over it and rice on the side.

Mail order:
For moulard duck, D’Artagnan, tel 800-327-8246,
dartagnan.com
; for Madagascar cloves, Penzeys Spices, tel 800-741-7787,
penzeys.com
.
Further information and recipes:
African Cooking
by Laurens van der Post (1970); for Zanzibar Rice Pilau recipe,
zanzinet.org/recipes
(click Zanzibar Dishes, then Zanzibar Pilau).

A jebena is used for brewing.

Although high-quality coffee is grown in several parts of Africa, most notably Tanzania and Kenya, the world’s premium Arabica bean is believed to have originated in Ethiopia, where the drink may have taken its name from the former kingdom of Kaffa—although Ethiopians call their favorite drink
bunna
(pronounced boona). Some historians believe the wild Arabica beans were nibbled here as far back as the sixth century
A.D.
But, according to the colorful legend, they were not brewed until the ninth century, when a goat herder named Khaldi noticed his flock leaping about wildly after chewing on some red berries that were lying on the ground. He took the beans to a local imam, who threw them into a fire and said, “These berries are the devil’s work, so back to the devil they go.” Tantalized by the aroma of the roasting beans, the goat herder crumbled some and threw them in water to steep. Generations have been doing so ever since.

Cultivated mainly in the highland rainforests of the Djimma, Harrar, and Yirgacheffe regions, Ethiopian coffee is considered by many to be the best in the world. Roasted in what is known as the mocha
style
(distinct from true mocha
beans
, the best of which are from Yemen), the hard, relatively dry beans result in a refreshingly acidic, eye-opening brew. Djimma beans produce a rustic, sharp-tasting beverage, while those from the higher slopes of Harrar lend a smoother, more winey flavor, with an engaging, unexpected wildness. Beans from Yirgacheffe, most famously those grown in the Gedeo Zone, have a uniquely floral, citrusy character, while maintaining that winey depth.

Traditionally flavored with butter, salt, and spices, coffee in Ethiopia reportedly wasn’t sweetened with sugar until the arrival of the Italians, who occupied the country in 1935. Ethiopians prefer their coffee scented with cloves and cinnamon and sweetened with native wild mountain honey. Brewed in a specialized, long-necked clay vessel called a
jebena
, it is always served scalding hot. A succession of three cups per person is de rigueur in the formal Ethiopian coffee-drinking ritual, which usually takes place after a feast and may be accompanied by the burning of incense.

Where:
In Addis Ababa
, Habesha, tel 251/116-182-253/58; Tomoca, tel 251/111-111-781/83,
tomocacoffee.com
;
in New York
, Queen of Sheba, tel 212-397-0610,
shebanyc.com
;
in Montclair, NJ
, Mesob, tel 973-655-9000,
mesobrestaurant.com
;
in Washington, DC
, Dukem, tel 202-667-8735,
dukemrestaurant.com
; Meskerem, tel 202-462-4100,
meskeremethiopianrestaurantdc.com
.
Mail order:
McNulty’s Tea & Coffee Co., tel 212-242-5351,
mcnultys.com
; The Ethiopian Coffee Company, tel 44/0207-746-2969,
theethiopiancoffeecompany.co.uk
; Buunni Coffee, tel 347-819-0705,
buunnicoffee.com
.
Further information and recipes:
ethiopianrestaurant.com
(click Ethiopian Coffee);
food.com
(search ethiopian coffee).
Tip:
Look for names such as Harrar, Djimma, Yergacheffe Gedeo, and Ethiopian mocha or mocha-style.

The basis of a true Ethiopian meal is the injera.

We don’t know for sure what wiles the Queen of Sheba worked to lure King Solomon in Old Testament days, but her arsenal may well have included a sampling of her native cuisine—for an Ethiopian dinner is a dramatically seductive meal, ripe with bold, spice-burnished preparations and colorful, stylized customs and tableware.

These days, Ethiopian restaurants decorated with colorful fabrics, carpets, wall hangings, and handcrafts, their offerings loosely suggestive of the cuisines of the Middle East and India, are popular in urban areas of the United States—a phenomenon that dates back at least thirty-five years. Staff may be dressed in native tunics and robes, and some of the restaurants feature live music and traditional dancers. Typically, diners sit on low wooden stools in front of basket tables called
mesobs
, woven in brilliant, intricate geometric designs, and servers present pitchers and basins so guests can wash their hands before dining.

The first specialty to appear is invariably
injera
, a tangy, light, and spongy sort of crêpe that looks like a big ivory napkin and that serves as both bread and eating utensil. Made with a sourdough batter based on a flour of whole wheat, barley, millet or, most authentically, teff (the native grain also known as lovegrass), injera is moist and pliable. It neatly enfolds mouthfuls of stews and other foods served in communal bowls, usually made of terra-cotta and set in basket holders. According to etiquette, diners tear off pieces of injera and eat with the right hand only—the left being considered unclean.

The meal might begin with
sambossas
, meat-filled pastry turnovers, and perhaps the clear ginger-and-garlic-scented chicken soup,
yedoro shorba. Kitfo
, a tartare of finely cubed raw beef brightened with onions, ginger, garlic, cardamom, and lemon juice, might also appear early on. Like many of the other dishes on offer, kitfo is glossed with spiced butter and spiked with
berbere
, the incendiary seasoning made with
mit’mita
, an Ethiopian spice mix based on bird’s-eye chiles (
Capsicum frutescens
). What follows will almost surely include a
wett
or two, the Ethiopian stew that may be based on fish, beef, lamb, or chicken; the latter, called
doro wett
, is a great favorite in which the chicken is simmered to melting tenderness with exotic herbs and spices, and garnished with hard-cooked eggs. There should also be an herbed vegetable stew such as
yataklete kilkil
, served with
yekik alich’a
, a soothing sauce similar to Indian
dahl
, made from split peas or, tastier yet, lentils.

If all that richness and spice works up a thirst, quaff an Ethiopian beer or try the mead-like honey wine,
t’ej
, which may be flavored with ginger or fruit. The wine will have to satisfy your sweet tooth, too, as traditionally Ethiopian dinner feasts don’t involve dessert, though a cup of dark-as-midnight coffee brewed from Ethiopian beans (see
listing
) provides a delicious, and fitting, conclusion.

Where:
In Addis Ababa
, Habesha, tel 251/116-182-253/58;
in New York
, Queen of Sheba, tel 212-397-0610,
shebanyc.com
;
in Montclair, NJ
, Mesob, tel 973-655-9000,
mesobrestaurant.com
;
in Washington, DC
, Dukem, tel 202-667-8735,
dukemrestaurant.com
; Meskerem, tel 202-462-4100,
meskeremethiopianrestaurantdc.com
.
Mail order:
For berbere spice blend, Zamouri Spices, tel 913-829-5988,
zamourispices.com
; for teff flour,
bobsredmill.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Exotic Ethiopian Cooking
compiled and edited by Daniel J. Mesfin (2006);
The Soul of a New Cuisine
by Marcus Samuelsson (2006);
African Cookbook: Recipes from Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Kenya
by Rachel Pambrun (2012);
saveur.com
(search ethiopian flatbread; ethiopian lentil stew);
cookingchanneltv.com
(search kitfo; doro wat);
howtocookgreatethiopian.com
(click Recipes).

The Merkato employs over twelve thousand people.

Anyone who appreciates the drama of sprawling, open-air markets might well consider spending a week discovering the alleys and byways of the Merkato in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Said to be the largest of Africa’s many epic markets, it is virtually a town in itself, covering about four square miles, with a daily occupancy of more than twelve thousand people working in some seven thousand individual enterprises. Begun as a segregated European preserve by the Italians, who occupied Ethiopia in 1935 (
mercato
means market in Italian), by the 1960s it had developed into the primary market for local vendors and customers alike.