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A Class in Indian/Pakistani Cooking

A couple of fabulous desserts sneaked in under the radar when Farhana Sahibzada gave a demo on Indian and Pakistani food.

The gist of the demo (I'll get to the desserts later) was how to make a basic sauce that can be used with chicken, meatballs, eggplant, or whatever you have in mind. It's a practical idea, because the sauce can be made in advance, stored in the freezer, then combined with pre-cooked meat for an almost instant meal.

The procedure is spelled out in her book, "Flavorful Shortcuts to Indian/(Pakistani) Cooking," which has just been named the winner in the international cookbook division of the 4th Annual Beverly Hills Book Awards.

The simple steps, explained in a chicken curry recipe, are to saute dried spices, then onions, ginger and garlic. Then tomatoes are added and finally the chicken. At the top, Sahibzada shows the finished curry.

 

A buffet lunch of dishes from the book preceded the demo at Melissa's Produce. Naan breads and crudités accompanied mint chutneys and cucumber raita (above). "I feel no guilt using store-bought naan," she said. "That's what they do in Pakistan."

She's just as flexible in making samosas (above), using egg roll wrappers instead of making her own dough. The result is tender, crisp samosas filled with potatoes, peas, green onions and cilantro.

To season fruit chaat (above), she combines chaat masala (available in Indian markets) with orange and lemon juices, cumin seeds, red pepper, salt and sugar. It's "a lovely snack, a street food that very easily comes to your party table," she said. 

The main dish was ground beef seekh kabobs (above), which can be broiled or cooked outdoors on a grill.

Other dishes were a veggie combo of potatoes, carrots and peas and a dessert not in the book that she threw in as an extra, ras malai--cakes of Indian cheese in a creamy sauce (above).

Then the dishes were cleared away for the demo, in which Sahibzada emphasized that Indian cooking is forgiving and flexible. Ingredients can be substituted or left out, and procedures can be simplified. "Keep it easy on yourself. Don't stress about it," she said.

When the demo was over and people were preparing to leave, out came the two extraordinary desserts. One was a rich and complex version of the Indian ice cream kulfi (above).

What gives it substance is ricotta cheese, ground together with almonds, pistachios, cardamom seeds, evaporated and condensed milks and whipping cream.

The other was moist, cake-like almond squares. These would be a hit at any potluck, and they're so easy to make. All you do is grind together powdered milk, butter, eggs, sugar, almonds and saffron, spread this in a baking dish and bake it until golden. The hint of saffron as you eat is heavenly.

From Lahore, Pakistan, Sahibzada has taught Indian/Pakistani cooking for more than 20 years and last year taught at culinary schools in Lahore. Here's what I wrote about her for LA Weekly.

Sahibzada's next class, featuring a vegetarian menu, will take place April 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Juan Bautista de Anza Park, 3701 Lost Hills Road, Calabasas. For more information and to get in touch, go to her website, www://flavorfulshortcuts.com.

ALMOND SQUARES
From "Flavorful Shortcuts to Indian/Pakistani Cooking" by Farhana Sahibzada.

6 eggs
1 stick butter (1/4 pound), melted and cooled
1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup peeled almonds, finely ground (lightly toasted if desired before grinding)
A pinch of saffron threads

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Grind the eggs, butter, sugar, powdered milk, almonds and saffron together in a blender or a food processor. Spread in a 12x8-inch baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into squares or diamonds.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

10 Top Tastes at the Taste of Israel

The food at the first Taste of Israel Food & Wine Festival was marvelous and servings were generous, although it became hard to reach them because tasters jammed every bit of space in the Majestic Downtown as if this were going to be their last meal.

The bigger the crowd the better, because the money from their tickets goes to American Friends of Meir Panim, which helps the destitute and hungry in Israel. At $300 for a VIP ticket and $125 for general admission, the organizers should be celebrating a substantial haul.

All of the food was kosher--notice the sign on the side of the booth above. Rather than tureens of matzo ball soup (nothing wrong with that), it was light, flavorful, Mediterranean style food, salads and refined sauces, beautifully prepared.

I got in early enough to sample much of it before being swept away in the crush. And I was impressed. Here are my 10 top picks, with a few extras, prepared by chefs from Israel, chefs and caterers from the Los Angeles area, and an olive oil and vinegar company from New York.

But first, take a look at this tower of glasses provided by Psagot, which was one of 19 wineries that took part. Although the glasses on the barrel were stacked on top of each other precariously, I never heard a crash.

1. You can't have an Israeli food festival without an Israeli salad. Here it is, prepared by Bazilikum Signature Catering of Beverly Hills.

What I really liked at this booth was beet kobe (not Kobe, Japan but kubbah, as Faye Levy spells it in her Facebook report on the tasting.) These little cakes of semolina dough were stuffed with ground beef and simmered in beet sauce. I could happily have made a meal of them alone.

2. Except that I went crazy for the beet salad prepared by chef Shaul Ben Haderet of the Blue Rooster in Tel Aviv. The diced beets were barely cooked, if at all, then soaked along with sliced plums in a sweet dressing that included date molasses, pomegranate molasses, honey and balsamic vinegar. There were almonds too, and pistachios and Italian parsley. It was brilliant--if you like sweet fruity salads.

A big attention-getter was Haderet's North African brik--pastry stuffed with spinach and a whole raw egg, then fried and placed on eggplant puree. Above, he's adding the egg to the pastry. It's a trick to do this so that the egg comes out properly cooked and doesn't break through the pastry.

3. Another Tel-Aviv chef, Tzahi Bukshester of Black Bar 'n' Burger, made wonderful white bean hummus, which he decorated with whole beans and a green herb puree.

His other dish was spicy bulgur mixed with lentils and topped with short ribs (mujadara). This dish is typically made with rice and lentils, but, said Bukshester, "Rice is pretty new to the Middle East. This is the original version."

4. Back to salads with this delicious combination of cauliflower, quinoa and pomegranate arils fom Mama's Flavors, a salads and catering business established in the San Fernando Valley by two women from Israel.

5. Chef Malcolm Mitchell of the Blue Olive in Pawling, New York, an olive oil and vinegar tasting room, offered fried tilapia on date and fig jam.  

Bottles of Blue Olive olive oil were set out for tasting too. I was blown away by the dill-infused olive oil on the left. The mushroom and sage oil on the right is so strongly flavored that you could add it to a salad and forget the mushrooms.

6. Chef-owner Alain Cohen of Got Kosher? Cafe in Los Angeles provided a feast of his specialties. You would never guess the secret ingredient in his Tunisian meatballs on cous cous (above). But I'll tell. It's rose petals.

The recipe was his mother's, he said. Another of her dishes was fricassee--stuffed buns made of leftover challah dough (above). For the festival, Cohen filled them with tuna belly and lively seasonings such as capers and harissa. He also set out little cups of baba ghanoush.

Got Kosher? is famous for its pretzel challah, and there were samples of that as well as chocolate and plain bread puddings made with challah. These were the only desserts I saw at the festival.

7. People from many lands have settled in Israel. This has resulted in a blend of cuisines that includes Middle Eastern dishes such as these rice-stuffed grape leaves from Darna Mediterranean Cuisine, a glatt kosher restaurant in Woodland Hills. Darna also offered soups and hummus.

8. Skuna Bay salmon belly pastrami from Savore Cuisine & Events, a catering and events company in downtown Los Angeles, is being sliced by chef Richard Lauter, whose chef partner Erez Levy also worked the booth.

The salmon then was laid over roasted garnet beet sauerkraut on pumpernickel rye toast. The yellow sauce is Meyer lemon mostarda.

9. Sushi. If you got in early, you could eat your fill at Sushiko's booth, where chef Kahn Chingis Byambasuren worked so hard he barely spoke. (Sushiko is a Kosher-Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles.) What you see above is only part of what he had prepared.

Other items included salmon salad and tuna ceviche in a spoon (above). When I asked the chef to make whatever he felt like, I got a nori-wrapped roll that included rice and tuna and was lined on top with tomato slices. Instead of arranging this on the counter, he gave me all four pieces.

10. Let's finish with a wine, the 2011 Secret Reserve Merlot from Shiloh winery in the Judean Hills in Israel. Made from hand-picked grapes, the wine is aged in new French oak. I don't know why it's a "secret" reserve, but it's not a secret that it's a lovely wine that would go beautifully with any dish at the tasting--and that includes Sushiko's sushi.

Top 10 Ethnic Finds at the Expo

It was great fun, and overwhelming, to jostle my way through the crowds at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim. Laden with bags of samples and brochures, I went at top speed through aisle after aisle, searching for what interested me--ethnic food.

The Expo was so vast that in the one day I was there I could get to only a fraction of the exhibits. Still, I saw plenty of exciting ethnic products, some of them brand new. Here's my Top 10 list.

1. Filipino convenience food. Filipino cuisine has not yet gone mainstream in the United States, but this may change with the help of ready-to-serve products from Kusina Filipino Kitchen (above).

Interestingly, the package of adobo chicken with rice at the bottom is labeled "tangy chicken," perhaps to avoid confusion with Latino adobos. What makes the chicken tangy is coconut vinegar. Also in the line are sauteed chicken with mildly spicy seasonings, vegetable and chicken spring rolls (lumpia), chicken empanadas and rice noodle stir fry (pancit).

Kusina is Tagalog for kitchen. Manufactured in northern California, the products represent typical Filipino-American homestyle cooking.

The parent company is Ramar Foods, which originated with Ramon and Maria Quesada, who sold Filipino products in northern California. P.J. Quesada (above), from the third generation of the family, has made it his cause to promote Filipino cuisine in the United States. Check out the website for his Filipino Food Movement.

2. Burmese tea leaf salad kit. Tea leaves harvested and fermented in Myanmar (Burma) go into the popular tea leaf salad at Burma Superstar restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area. Just out is a kit with which to reproduce that same salad at home (above).

Labeled Burma Love Laphet, It includes two packets of seasoned fermented tea leaves (laphet) and one of traditional Burmese crunchy mix, composed of roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, fried garlic chips, fried yellow split peas and sunflower seeds. Above are the salad components.

The kit suggests adding lettuce. The salad samples handed out at Expo included diced tomatoes too.

3. Turmeric drinks. Fresh turmeric is a hot new produce item. Valued in Asia for its health benefits, it's the base of Temple Turmeric's line of healthful beverages.

The line includes "super lights" that contain just 40 calories per bottle in flavors such as hibiscus berry-ade, lemon ginger-ade and strawerry lemon-ade. There are also super blends, which are drinkable meals; elixirs and super tonics, all made with fresh Hawaiian Oana turmeric.

To show off its beverages, Temple Turmeric set up a tropical pavilion where Expo goers could escape from the bustle of the show. A stone goddess held the treasured root.

4. Korean gochujang is one of the hottest condiments on the market. Chung Jung One presented squeezable bottles in three flavors--regular, miso and spicy ketchup sauce. Once you taste the ketchup version--gochujang blended with sweet and tangy tomato sauce--you might not want to use that other stuff on your burgers again.

5. Pho concentrates. Pho, the Vietnamese soup, gets its character from long simmered meaty broth. If you don't have the time or expertise to make this super rich broth at home, you can use Savory Choice liquid pho broth concentrates.

These come in three flavors--beef, chicken and veggie. Each packet contains enough concentrate for 2 cups of broth to which you add meat and/or vegetables and cooked rice noodles. You won't find faster pho than this.

6. American-made ghee. Tava ghee, which debuted at last year's Expo, has rebranded itself as 4th & Heart (heart is the 4th chakra) and repackaged all its products. I loved 4th & Heart's new California garlic ghee, which is light enough to slather onto bread without reeking offensively. The other newbie is white truffle ghee, for a quick touch of elegance.

The big selling point is, ghee is so easy to use. It can be stored at room temperature and is spreadable when you need it, unlike butter, which has to be softened.

4th & Heart ghees are made with premium butter, from which the solids have been removed, ending up with a product that is, surprisingly, lactose- and dairy-free. Raquel Tavares Gunsagar (above) founded the company, which is located in downtown Los Angeles.

7. Holy basil honey. Based in northern India, Sanjeevani Organics produces more than 100 organic food products. On display at its space in the India Pavilion were ghee from the company's own dairy, packets of fenugreek and mustard seeds and gorgeous honeys, including one flavored with holy basil (above).

Also known as tulsi, holy basil is revered in India as a sacred plant, so a spoonful of this every day should be good for your soul, as well as for your body. Another honey in the line is flavored with mint.

8. Saffron spray. If you've admired the way Indian biryani rice is splashed with gold, there's an easy way to accomplish this. Instead of heating saffron threads in liquid and sprinkling this onto rice, you simply spray it on from a bottle. The spray bottle is new from Sadaf, which distributes a wide range of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern products.

9. Naan chips. Chips were big at Expo, most of them made from tortillas. But these are based on Indian naan breads. They're from the Maya Kaimal line of Indian products, which includes refrigerated and shelf stable sauces such as tikka masala, vindaloo, korma and Madras curry. Hot dishes served at the booth were butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, dal makhani and chana masala.

Maya Kaimal herself (above) appeared at the booth. She's the author of two cookbooks: "Curried Favors: Family Recipes from South India"  and "Savoring the Spice Coast of India," which is about the food of Kerala. 

10. Tortilla chips and tortillas. How could anyone resist sweet cinnamon tortilla chips? Reminiscent of buñuelos, they're part of the Los Cantores line of chips produced by Mexican Corn Products of Ottawa, Canada. Try them with ice cream or cafe de olla. 

Other chips in the line are chipotle, jalapeño, lime, blue corn, ancient grains and a basic plain chip. The tortillas are made with white corn flour from the United States, and they're not any less Mexican because they're made in Canada. Principles in the company are from Tamazula in the state of Jalisco.

Margarita's Tortilla Factory, from Manchaca, Texas showed corn and flour tortillas (above). The diverse line includes flour tortillas flavored with spinach and onion, with southwestern seasonings or with jalapeños. In addition to white or whole wheat flour tortillas, the company offers spelt flour tortillas and stone-ground corn tortillas.

These are made without preservatives, unlike the mass market American corn tortillas that have been sitting on my kitchen counter for eight months, without drying out or showing a trace of mold. 

That product is pretty scary, but Margarita's tortillas are topnotch. The corn tortillas are non-GMO, and the flour tortillas are organic.

Food from Faye: Yemenite Chicken

If there is any cookbook author I would trust, it would be Faye Levy, and not because she has written 23 cookbooks in three languages, although this is an impressive achievement.

I know that when I make one of her dishes, like the Yemenite Chicken Casserole at the top, it is going to work. This is because Faye digs at a dish until she understands exactly what makes it tick, or how to fix it if it isn't right. She may not intend to write about it at all. She simply wants to know.  

This I've learned through our emails about shopping for food and cooking. Her determination is extraordinary, and unstoppable.

And yet this strong intent comes in a tiny package. Faye is so petite that when she gave a presentation at Melissa's Produce recently, she had to stand on a box behind the counter so people could see her.

The topic that day was two of her specialties, Jewish and Middle Eastern cooking. Faye has lived in Israel and has trained and worked at LaVarenne in France, where she acquired a thorough grounding in cooking principles that can apply to any cuisine.

She has written for many publications, including The Los Angeles Times and, with her husband Yakir, is culinary correspondent for The Jerusalem Post magazine.

The program at Melissa's was a tribute to Faye, as well as a chance to sample her recipes. Copies of her books were arranged around the room. Here is one display.

The six I have include "1,000 Jewish Recipes." In my opinion, writing a book that extensive is more than enough for one lifetime. Each recipe has personal commentary. And on every page I find something I want to make.

Two of the recipes prepared by Melissa's chefs to go with Faye's appearance came from that book. The green tahini sauce above, served with crudités, appears in "1,000 Jewish Recipes" as Herbed Tahini Sauce.

This Israeli-California salad is also from "1,000 Jewish Recipes." What makes it Californian is the addition of jicama, which is not available in the Middle East, she said.

Above is a Persian eggplant salad that Faye created for a Los Angeles Times article.

This plate of asparagus and carrots is part of the recipe for Yemenite chicken, which is in "Faye Levy's International Jewish Cookbook."

For dessert, she chose a creamy rosewater pudding from "Feast from the Mideast."  Known as muhallebi or mallabi, it is street food in the Middle East and in Turkey is a popular treat in "pudding shops."

Easy to make, the pudding is delicious with its topping of strawberries and pistachios. It would be the perfect ending to a spring dinner following Yemenite chicken and its accompanying vegetables.

YEMENITE CHICKEN CASSEROLE WITH POTATOES, ASPARAGUS AND CARROTS
From "Faye Levy's International Jewish Cookbook"

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil or chicken fat
2 medium onions, chopped
8 medium garlic cloves, chopped (about 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons)
3 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup water
6 pounds chicken legs and thighs
2 pounds Dutch Yellow Potatoes or 8 medium boiling potatoes
1/3 cup coarsely chopped parsley, plus a little chopped parsley for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 pound ripe tomatoes, chopped, or a 14-ounce can plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 pound medium carrots, peeled, cut in 2-inch lengths and quartered
3/4 pound medium-width asparagus, peeled and cut in 2-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 300 degrees.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large deep heavy flameproof casserole over medium-low heat, add onions and saute until golden. Remove from heat. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the garlic, cumin, turmeric, tomato paste and 1/2 cup water.

Add chicken to casserole and mix; chicken should be well coated with spices. Add potatoes, parsley, salt, pepper and tomatoes and mix thoroughly. Cover tightly and bake about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until chicken is very tender; check occasionally and add liquid if necessary, so there is just a little sauce but chicken does not get dry.

Meanwhile, cook carrots in water to cover over medium heat for 7 minutes or until just   tender. Remove with slotted spoon.  Add asparagus to cooking liquid and boil uncovered 3 to 4 minutes or until just tender. Rinse asparagus with cold water; drain well.

Shortly before serving, heat 1 to 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add remaining 2 teaspoons garlic, followed by the carrots, asparagus, pepper flakes and a pinch of salt. Saute until heated through.

Taste chicken sauce and adjust seasoning. Sprinkle the chicken with chopped parsley. Serve the asparagus and carrots with the chicken.

Makes 8 servings.

A Middle Eastern Feast--in Oregon

This glorious plate of Middle Eastern food was my lunch at Abu's Oasis Deli, a Lebanese and Greek restaurant in Grants Pass, Oregon.

On the left is lamb and onion shawarma that was grilled rather than cooked in the traditional way, on a spit. The onions had caramelized, making the flavor even more rich.

In the center is rice pilaf that includes almonds and browned noodles. Assorted vegetables, pickles, an olive and feta cheese are at the right, and the little cup at the top holds garlic sauce.

At the bottom right is one of the best versions of tabbouleh that I have tasted--a small amount of fine bulgur mixed with parsley, cucumber and tomato and as fresh as if it had just been made. Here is a closer look at it.

Pita bread also came with the lunch, for $12.95.  Another optiion is to have a shawarma sandwich (lamb, steak or chicken) in a pita (above).

A nice way to end a meal at Abu's is with Lebanese espresso. The coffee, flavored with cardamom, comes in a long handled pot (jezve) accompanied by tiny black cups.

If I didn't live so far away, I would be a regular at Abu's, like the people in the photo. The menu is long, with vegetarian options and a family size sampler that includes a tremendous variety of food.

Abu's has deli food to go, including falafel, spanakopita, Greek salad and grape leaves. It is also a mini market, with shelves of Middle Eastern ingredients that cost much more than I would pay for them at home in Los Angeles--the advantage of living in a big city with a large and varied Middle Eastern community.

Abu's Oasis Deli, 1330 N.W. 6th St., Grants Pass, Oregon 97526. Tel: (541) 476-1425. 

A Dining Tour of OldTown Medford

Unleash young, wildly creative foodies and you get something like the tapas at Elements Tapas Bar & Lounge in OldTown Medford, Oregon.

There are big gutsy dishes, like sweet braised oxtails and fried potatoes with white truffle oil and Cheddar, topped with fried eggs.

And light bites such as grapes rolled in crushed pistachios with blue cheese (above), only it's not ordinary cheese but the famous blue from southern Oregon's Rogue Creamery.

Local fresh figs stuffed with Idiazabal cheese are wrapped in aged serrano ham, roasted and finished with a balsamic glaze (above). 

Hot bacon-wrapped dates are delectable, but you might want to try something more unusual such as Matiz Gallego sardines wrapped with house made bacon and finished with lemon aioli and arbequina olive oil.

My favorite was shrimp in a buttery saffron sauce with garlic and sherry (above), until I tasted mahi mahi with pickled sweet peppers and lemon olive oil--the fish had been dusted first with ground coriander and lemon pepper.

Another top dish was pan-seared duck breast with sauteed spinach, oyster mushrooms and quince mustard, made from local fruit.

Wines are mainly from Spain and southern Oregon--I had a Jaxon Vineyards Tempranillo from the Rogue Valley.  But check specials at the bar (above) such as a cocktail of Dry Fly gin from Washington State, Aperol, muddled fresh blueberries, basil, lemon juice and simple syrup.

OldTown Medford is packed with atmospheric eateries. Start out at  Porters--Dining at the Depot, housed in what was a train station in 1910. If you're sharing with friends, try the mammoth seafood appetizer platter (above) loaded with cocktail shrimp, house-smoked salmon, fried calamari, crab and shrimp cakes and smoked salmon rangoons.

Then move on to Elements for tapas. And finish with a drink at Jefferson Spirits in a 1924 building redone with reclaimed lumber (above). 

This woodsy, casual place has an enormous bar. Sip a Scotch or whiskey, try an Oregon craft beer or ask for a historic cocktail such as the blend of bourbon, bitters and bubbly that originated at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky almost 100 years ago.

You can even have dessert here. I tucked into an enormous plate of vanilla ice cream and huge chocolate chip cookies, a sort of melty ice cream sandwich that was just as alluring as a bar full of booze.

Elements Tapas Bar & Lounge, 101 E. Main St., Medford, Oregon 97501. Tel: (541) 779-0135.

Porters--Dining at the Depot, 147 N. Front St., Medford, Oregon 97501. Tel: (541) 857-1910.

Jefferson Spirits, 404 E. Main St., Medford, Oregon 97501. Tel. (541) 622-8190.

A Guidebook to Ethiopian Cuisine

If you want to know what Ethiopian food is really like, take a look at "Ethiopian Cookbook: Pinnacle of Traditional Cuisine" by Konjit Zewge, translated by Mesrak Mekonnen (Xlibris, 2015).

The recipes in this book aren't adapted to the American taste, a publishing ploy that often results in a watered-down version of the real thing.

Instead, this is a document of food anthropogy, a look at how Ethiopians actually cook and eat. Zewge set down her recipes at the age of 89 so they could be passed on to younger generations. Mekonnen, her daughter, translated the book, which was originally titled "Yemouya Kouncho." (Mekonnen lives in San Francisco).

You may never cook these dishes, because they require ingredients you're not likely to find, among them oxen hump meat, false banana root flour, Ethiopian holy basil, fresh rue seeds and mastekakeya kimem, a spice mix that combines cardamom, cinnamon, caraway seeds, cloves and black cumin.

Even Merkato, a market and restaurant in Little Ethiopia in Los Angeles, had only a few of the ingredients called for, including the seasoned red pepper berbere, shiro, which is seasoned chickpea flour, and meetmeta--ground hot red pepper with cardamom.

The shelves there are stacked with individual spices, tea spices, legumes, grains and readymade injera, the flat bread made from teff flour that acccompanies Ethiopian meals.

The refrigerator contains tej, which is Ethiopian honey wine, used in some of the recipes. It's made at the market.

The plate of food at the top, from Merkato's restaurant, is lined with injera before adding assorted dishes that ought to fire you up to try this cuisine.

Clockwise from the top they are the house salad, two lentil dishes, an orange puree made from shiro, more salad, collards and cabbage. In the center are a mild lamb stew and beef in spicy red pepper sauce.

The beef stew is called yebeg sega wot (above, as it appears on the menu). Wot means stew and is basic to Ethiopian cuisine. In the book, the chapter of "Spicy Meat Dishes" includes 13 wots. It seems characteristic to add a large amount of butter to these meat dishes, more than we would think of using.

The dough for injera (above) has to sit for four days before it is ready to turn into thin, soft, spongy sheets. Portions of these are used to scoop up food.

Other chapters cover breakfast dishes, vegetables, grains and legumes, additional breads and mild, spicy and fried meats. A photo of the author is among the illustrations.

The book is available through Amazon and also from the publisher. It's a fascinating read, even if a challenge to cook with.

Online sources can supply some of the ingredients. If you're near Los Angeles, you can shop at Merkato and have lunch at the restaurant (above). The address is 1036 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90019. Tel: (323) 935-1775.