[This material comes from an "Ethiopian American Cook Book" done by a group of Ethiopian and American women in Addis Abeba, published in Addis, printed in Asmara. It has no date anywhere but I would guess 1965-70. It is dual-text English-Amharic, references to "wat" are of course to zigheny. A couple of the spices apparently have no names except their Ethiopian ones. The measures are Ethiopian, but the book gives a cup/tablespoon conversion table. I’ve done the conversions already, aside from that I’ve made no changes. Any comments/remarks I have, I will put in brackets. Sorry, the book has nothing on spaghetti sauce or hard rolls.]

How to Prepare Red Pepper [This, no doubt, is what we called zigheny powder.]

Preparation

  1. Put the peppers out in the sun to dry.
  2. Remove the stalk from the peppers.
  3. When the peppers are dry pound them well.
  4. Pound the red shallot and the garlic [! garlic not in ingredient list — maybe this explains the duplication?], add them to the pepper. Sprinkle some water on the mixture and keep the mixture covered for two or three days.
  5. Then put in the sunlight and let it dry
  6. Peel and chop the fresh ginger. Dry it in the sun.
  7. Roast the fenugreek on the "Injera" baking pan. Do the same with the rest of the spices.
  8. Pound the pepper and heat it on the "Injera" baking pan, and mix it with all the spice mixture. Add the salt.
  9. The final mixture is taken to the flour mill and ground finely. Where there is no flour mill available, it can be ground finely by the grinding stone at home.
  10. A portion can be taken at a time and mixed into thick paste by the use of warm water. It is good to store it in a dry cool place.
  11. Makes approximately 8 LBS (4-5 kg.)

A Combination of Wat Spice

Preparation

  1. Roast spices over a low fire.
  2. Pound the spices to break big pieces.
  3. Place a pinch of turmeric on the grinding stone and grind until a yellow coating of turmeric is spread over working surface.
  4. Grind all other spices together on the yellow grinding stone. This spice is added to the "Wat" towards the end of cooking.

Preparation of Chicken (for use in making "Doro Wat")

  1. After the chicken is killed, take off its head and the big feathers.
  2. Dip the chicken into a pot of boiling water holding it by the feet. Take off quickly the small feathers. Do not harm the skin.
  3. Wash the bird with warm water
  4. Blow through from the neck to prevent the air from escaping.
  5. Build a grass fire and turning the chicken quickly, burn off the pin feathers. Wash the bird with warm water and "shuro".
  6. Place two fingers inside the skin at the neck and force the skin down the right side. Force the skin off the right front breast and the right wings. Do the same for the left side. Gather all the skin together at the back of the bottom, and take it off.
  7. Force the two legs backwards and cut them off. Cut the legs into two pieces each at the joints.
  8. Find the joint at the wing shoulder and make a little cut with knife. Holding this in one hand and the neck with the other, force the meat off the wing down to the waist. Do the same for the other side.
  9. Working from the back of the chicken, loosen the shoulder bone from the flesh with a knife. Lift out the breast and the front of the chicken with the other hand. Press the two bones in the back against the front of the chicken so that they hang loosely.
  10. Take out the lungs and throw them away.
  11. Take the liver and put it in a dry dish. Remove the bile. Wash the liver let it dry. Put it in the oven and roast it.
  12. Take the heart and throw it away.
  13. Remove the gizzard, split it open and clean. Take out the inside, crop and throw it away. Curve the brim with a knife where you opened it. Wash and put it with the good meat.
  14. Throw the rest of insides away. Now only the neck and the backbone remain. Cut the backbone into two parts horizontally.
  15. Cut the neck into four parts, each of which is two cm. long.
  16. Take out the white cord from the neck with a piece of wood or a big feather.
  17. Clean the backbone, the small portion where the neck adjoined, and the place from where the lungs were removed.
  18. Put all the meat except the liver in a big bowl. Add cold water, lemon juice, chopped onion and ground salt. Leave for five minutes then wash each piece thoroughly scraping off the white liquid with a knife.
  19. Cut the wing into two pieces, gently grease the meat away from the bones and take out the bones.
  20. If the meat is not used immediately, put it in a clean dish and sprinkle it with ground salt. Later when the meat is used, wash it, scraping off the white liquid from it.

CHICKEN "WAT"

Preparation

  1. Kill the chicken and prepare it for cooking.
  2. Put the chopped red shallots in the clay pot and stir them well until they are golden brown.
  3. Add a little water and then the red pepper.
  4. Cook the red pepper well, adding a little water whenever necessary.
  5. After a while add the butter and cook until the meat is tender.
  6. Put in the pieces of prepared chicken.
  7. Add salt and ginger.
  8. Put in water and let it boil.
  9. Cook the "wat" until some of the water evaporates.
  10. Take it off the fire and sprinkle black pepper over the top of the "wat".
  11. Serve with hard boiled eggs (hot). 4-6 servings.

[Good luck to anyone who tries it. I assume no liability for the results. Since the Senate has rejected the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, there should be no legal obstacles.]

Larry Bucher
162 West Pine Street
Spearfish, SD 57783-8632