MARKETS : Taking Mystery Out of Ethiopian Cooking

C & K Importing, 2771 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 737-2970 or (213) 737-2880. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Ethiopian food is distinctive, as spicy and exotic as Indian or Moroccan food but heartier and earthier. It’s a real crowd-pleaser.

But until now, it hasn’t been the sort of thing you’d want to do very often. To cook ye-doro wet’ , the national dish of stewed chicken, you’d have to make a complicated mixture of spices, some rather hard to get, and then you’d have to clarify butter, also with rare spices. And before serving the dish you’d have the indescribably tricky and frustrating chore of making the national griddle bread, without which Ethiopian food just isn’t Ethiopian.

Our luck has changed. C & K Importing, a well-known Greek and Middle Eastern market in Los Angeles, now has an Ethiopian section selling spices, clarified butter, and anything else you’d want for an Ethiopian meal (and an Ethiopian cookbook to explain the uses).

* The three classic spice mixtures found in most Ethiopian dishes: berbere , essential for ye-doro wet’ ; awaze , virtually the same list of ingredients as berbere , but in different proportions; mit’mit’a , the hottest spice mixture.

* Nit’r k’ibe : Clarified butter, full of the aroma of spices, especially cardamom.

* Injera : The devilishly tricky Ethiopian griddle bread is available in plastic bags. They look a little like washcloths, but they’re tasty and surprisingly practical. You spread some on your plate or dining tray (see below) and ladle the dishes onto them. Every diner gets a couple of these breads to eat with; you tear off a swatch, pick up some food with it and pop the packet into your mouth. When the meal is over, you can eat the injeras on the plate.

* Shiro : Pea flour, used for porridge.

* Kwant’o : a sort of beef jerky dusted with berbere . It’s eaten as a snack or added to pea flour porridge.

* Fasting foods: Nick Solomonidis, C & K’s resident Ethiopian sales person, reminisces about fasts in Ethiopia, where the meatless season adds up to an astounding 200 days a year. “Before Easter we fast 40 days,” he said, “as well as two days every week. On those days we eat wet’ made with lentils or beans instead of meats.” The store stocks many varieties in all hues of orange, yellow and brown, lined up like clear plastic-covered bean bags on the back wall shelves.

* Sambousa: The familiar Near Eastern/Indian turnover is made with flaky pastry and filled with spicy meat. There’s also a vegetarian version, misser sambousa , filled with lentils, available around Easter time.

* Ethiopian coffee: C & K sells beans from Ethiopia’s coffee-making capital, Harar, both darkly roasted or green. Often cardamom and a pinch of salt are added to Ethiopian coffee but traditionally it is not sweetened in the cup. Instead, one can take a little honey (Ethiopia is famous for its honey) under the tongue before each sip, mixing the sweet and aromatic liquids before each swallow.

* Coffee pot: Ethiopian coffee is brought to the boil seven times in a ceramic coffee pot called jabana , also available here. After it is boiled, the coffee is poured into a cup until it overflows the lip. “The custom, from times when political enemies took coffee together,” Solomonidis said, “assured that no poison, which might have been put in, remained in the cup.” To reassure his guests further, the host also took the first sip of coffee, and this custom also remains.

* T’alla : Ethiopian beer.

* T’ej : an ancient variety of mead wine, fermented from honey and flavored with gesho , Ethiopian hops.

* Other coffee paraphernalia: Coffee drinking has much ceremony attached to it, and in a corner next to the deli case, several shelves hold accouterments for the ritual: frankincense, ornate brass incense burning dishes and the little logs of charcoal you place the incense on.

* Dining ware: In addition to its Ethiopian ingredients, C & K stocks the large, round, enameled Ethiopian dining tray and the traditional hand-woven rush table ( mes’ob ) it is placed on, so you can serve the food authentically. Each table, with its own unique multicolored design, has a dome-shaped lid that keeps the meal warm.

You might wonder how a Greek market that has served Los Angeles Greeks since 1948, one that sells take-out souvlakia , gyros and Greek coffee in an adjoining cafe, came to carry Ethiopian products.

“It’s actually pretty logical,” says Chrys Chrys, C & K’s owner. “The Greeks have always been purveyors of food in the Middle East and to some extent in Ethiopia. So when Middle Easterners first came over here they’d look for provisions of ‘the Greek store’ as a matter of habit. And, of course, many of our ingredients are the same.” Ethiopian food was just another step, he says.

Many of C & K’s longtime customers have been ordering their whole baby lamb or lokanika (a wonderful Greek sausage made with wine, orange peel and a hint of fennel seed), since the time when the store bordered a Greek community. The Greek Orthodox Church is just a stone’s throw away. And on Sundays, even before the last bell has tolled at the end of services, a stream of regulars is stocking up on kourambies , the S-shaped Greek butter cookies, loukoumi , jewel-like fruit candies and the shop’s ready-to cook, home made Greek turnovers--spinach filled spanakopites or cheese filled tiropites .

During the mad Sunday rush, as I stand scrutinizing the rows of Ethiopian spices, Chrys finds a moment to pull me over to the deli case. “Look at this,” he says, snatching the lid from a pint container of a bright red sauce. “Its awaze jam, a liquid sauce made from the spice mixture. You can simply eat it with injera or pour some of it over cooked meat. It makes an almost instant Ethiopian meal.”

Almost instant. Our luck has changed.

YE DORO WET’

(Ethiopian Chicken Stew

3 whole chicken legs and 2 whole chicken breasts

1 large lime, cut in quarters

6 cups chopped red onions

2 cups nit’r k’ibe (spiced butter)

1 cup berbere (spice mixture)

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon bishop’s weed

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup t’ej or red wine

Salt

6 medium hard-cooked eggs

Injera (crepe-like griddle bread)

Remove skin from chicken and cut each joint into 2 pieces (you will have 20 pieces). Rub lime quarters over surface of chicken. In large bowl, cover chicken with water, squeeze in any remaining lime juice. Add lime pieces to bowl.

In heavy non-stick pan, cook red onions over medium heat without oil, stirring frequently, until golden. Add nit’r k’ibe and continue cooking onions until well browned. Add berbere, cardamom, pepper, bishop’s weed, garlic powder and ginger. Cook, stirring constantly, about 4 minutes. Add t’ej and 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook 20 minutes longer.

Drain chicken and add leg portions to onion mixture. Cook, covered, 15 minutes. Add breast pieces and simmer, covered, about 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until chicken is tender but not falling from bones. Season to taste with salt, adding more water if sauce is too thick. Add hard-cooked eggs, spooning sauce over them with wooden spoon just until eggs are warm.

Serve with injera . Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Note: Dish may be cooked ahead and reheated; in this case, add eggs during reheating process.

AWAZE MEREQ

(Beef Cooked In Red Pepper)

2 cups chopped red onions

1 1/2 cups nit’r K’ibe (spiced butter)

1 1/2 pounds cubed stewing beef (round or chuck)

1 cup awaze (red pepper mixture)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Salt

Injera

In heavy non-stick skillet or Dutch oven, cook red onions without oil, over medium heat, stirring frequently until golden brown. Add 1/4 cup nit’r k’ibe . Heat few minutes, then add beef. Cook until very brown, turning several times. Add 3 cups water. Cover and simmer until meat is tender, about 1 hour. Add remaining nit’r k’ibe , awaze, garlic powder and ginger. Cook, about 5 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Season to taste with salt. Serve hot with injera . Makes 6 servings.