I decided to make Doro Wat , which is a spicy chicken stew, and one of the most recognized dishes in Ethiopia. The recipe calls for hard boiled eggs, but I ended up skipping those. Wasn't feeling it.
So here is my culinary masterpiece bubbling away in our wok. (Believe me it tastes better than it looks!)
And below is the final product. I served it over couscous with cranberries and chunks of mango. It was quite delicious. On the side I served an Ethiopian cucumber and tomato salad. (Again, straying a little from the original recipe, I added a little fresh basil from our herb garden.)
So with our bellies full of "almost" authentic Ethiopian food, we went to bed last night and woke up to an email this morning from the U.S. Embassy saying... "We would like to inform you the consular section completed screening for your Form I-600 petition. We will now begin the review of orphan status for the I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption."
All this very formal talk just means our paperwork is getting processed and things are moving along! Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly the rest of the way.
Maybe my next culinary challenge will be making Injera! Has anyone successfully made this spongy little delight yet?
Sadly, I'm going to have to recommend that you skip trying to make the injera. My husband is a great cook and had it go terribly wrong three times before he gave up. An old Ethiopian woman at church told us that only old Ethiopian women can make it! I know other APs can do it, but it's very complicated, involves fermenting, etc. We just decided to focus on cooking other things and mail-ordering the injera. We get ours from Africanmarket.com. You might want to order some and freeze it in individual servings before you go to get the kids. They even feed it to the older babies, so your kids will be used to it. We had some on hand when we returned and it was a hit. It was one of the few thing Lucy would self-feed when we first came home. Shiro was also a big hit...might want to learn to make that, unless you have an Ethiopian restaurant nearby. Oh how I wish we could get takeout here...
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the advice on the injera . If only old Ethiopian women can make it right -- I am definitely out of the running! Will order some and freeze for the kiddos so they can have it when we finally bring the home. Almost there. Btw -- read your blog today. Great thought provoking question and one that I often think about. I am leaning towards answer B ;)
DeleteOh, and congrats on the Embassy email. One step closer!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the email and on the meal! Looks wonderful. We enjoy cooking Ethiopian food as well; maybe that's something we should do now to kill some time. We, too, are totally passing on the injera - our Ethiopian friends have told us that they have never made it, either (and neither did their mothers), and that's why other people make it and sell it! Thankfully we have a great local restaurant we can pick it up from.
ReplyDelete