Ethiopian

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Doro Wat (Chicken Stew with Berbere and Whole Eggs)

One of Ethiopia's national dishes, and the first thing this site's injera page lists under what goes on it. The aromatics guide sets its order out in numbered steps: heat the fat, whole spices, then the onion. Doro wat deletes step one. A kilo of finely chopped red onion goes into a dry pot with no fat at all and cooks for close to an hour until its water is gone and it has collapsed, and only then do the butter and the berbere arrive. The onion here is not an aromatic being bloomed, it is the body of the sauce. There is no flour, no tomato and no cream in it.

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Injera (Fermented Teff Flatbread with Open Eyes)

An Ethiopian flatbread: teff flour and water left to ferment on its own for three or four days, poured onto a hot plate in a spiral, covered, and cooked on one side only. Not turning it is the whole bread. The top never touches the plate, so the bubbles rising through the batter break at the surface and set open, leaving the honeycomb of holes called the eyes. Injera is also the plate and the spoon at an Ethiopian table, and those holes are where the stew goes.

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Siga Tibs (Sautéed Beef)

Ethiopia's go-to restaurant order: beef seared hard in spiced clarified butter, then tossed with berbere and fresh rosemary. It arrives in a clay pot over live coals with injera to scoop it up. One pan, 20 minutes — get the spices right and it tastes like the real thing.