Ethiopian Experience - Doro Wot (Chicken Stew)

In this week's Foodalogue adventure, Joan is taking us on a culinary tour of Ethiopia. Again, this is a pretty exciting destination, because I know as much about Ethiopian cuisine as I did about Romanian food - that is, nothing.

Accordingly, I had to do some research again to accompany Joan on this trip. Surprisingly, it is easier to find Ethiopian recipes than it is to find Romanian recipes. One dish which kept coming up in my searches is Doro Wot, a spicy chicken stew with a soupy sauce, traditionally containing boiled eggs and eaten with flat bread (to mop up the sauce, of course!) and vegetables. Accordingly, this is the dish that I settled on making.

Now to be perfectly honest, I would never have made Doro Wot if left to my own devices. It didn't sound appealing enough for me to have bothered, and the thought of boiled eggs in a stew kind of left me cold. However, in the spirit of taking this culinary tour, I went ahead and made Doro Wot - and I loved it!!!

I tweaked Dorinda Hafner's recipe and Fearless Kitchen's recipe to come up with my own version of Doro Wot which combined the best of both. It is the kind of recipe that you could easily up the ante on or dampen down certain ingredients, according to personal taste, and this is what I did. However, don't be afraid of trying the boiled eggs in this stew - they taste surprisingly good.

To make my version of Doro Wot, you will need:

30g ghee
2 diced brown onions
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 whole cloves
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon chilli powder
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 chicken cut into 8 pieces, reserving the wings, or 6 chicken pieces, skin on
6 shelled hard boiled eggs (I only used two just to try them)
1/4 cup red wine
juice of one lime

Place the onions and half of the ghee with a pinch of salt into a large oiled saucepan or wok, and cook the onions over low heat until golden (~15 minutes).

Add the rest of the ghee, cardamom, pepper, cloves, garlic, ginger and chilli powder, and continue to cook the onions until soft (~10 minutes).

Prick the chicken pieces and eggs with a fork. Add 2 cups of the stock with the chicken pieces and eggs to the pan, bring to a steady simmer, and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

Add the remaining half a cup of stock and the red wine to the pan, and continue to simmer while covered for 30 minutes.

Add the lime juice to the pan and simmer for a further five minutes, before removing the pan from the heat. Serves 3-6 (depending on whether you want one piece of chicken or two - I had one piece of chicken and one egg, and that was plenty for me when served with vegetables).

I didn't have any flat bread, but I served my Doro Wot with roasted sweet potato, pumpkin, parsnips, zucchini and asparagus sprayed with oil and coated in salt, pepper and mixed herbs (figuring that you could easily roast vegetables in a camp fire or primitive oven, so although the varieties of veges may not be authentic, the cooking method could be):

Verdict - absolutely and surprisingly delicious!! I'd make this again.

Do visit Foodalogue after 25 February to see the roundup of great Ethiopian recipes. Next stop is Russia (March 2) - hope to see you there!

On a different note, my lovely friend Ivy has given me with the Sweetheart Award:

Thanks Ivy! I wish to share this award with the following sweethearts:

The Blonde Duck of A Duck in Her Pond

Tammy of Wee Treats By Tammy

Arfi of Homemades

Sara of Sara's Kitchen

Dee of Choos and Chews

Thanks to these gals for brightening my day.