Week 20 - Berbere Paste

Berbere paste is an essential ingredient to Doro Wat. This paste is used throughout Ethiopian cooking. It took me a couple months to track down the spices. I had never seen Piquin peppers, cardamon, cumin seeds or fenugreek seeds in any spice stores around here before. There was a cute little store by Baypark here in Green Bay called Spice and Tea Exchange that sold the cardamon, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Unfortunately, I don't think the store will be around that long. It looked like they were struggling to get business. It really was quite sad. I found the Piquin chiles at good old Woodman's.

•14 dried Piquin chiles, stems removed
•2 Tablespoons ground cayenne
•2 Tablespoons ground paprika
•4 whole cardamom pods
•2 teaspoons cumin seeds
•1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
•1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
•1 small onion, coarsely chopped
•4 cloves garlic
•1 cup water
•1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
•1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
•1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
•3 Tablespoons oil

The most confounding element of the Berbere paste was the cardamom pods. Do you use the entire pod or do you shell it? I had read recipes where it indicated that it should be shelled and others that indicated that one should use the pod. Also, do you use black cardamom or green cardamom? Black is more for Indian cooking whereas the green is used more in Swedish and other European dishes. There really was no clarity on the matter. The black cardamom are somewhat like walnuts, though the shell isn't nearly as thick. One needs to pry out the little seeds, if you choose to do so. I ultimately decided that I would go sans pod on this one. It looked quite fibrous and very difficult to use with my newly acquired mortar and pestle. There was absolutely no way I would ever get that pod into a fine powder.

Overall, this paste was quite pungent. It was comprised of aromatics in the onion and various other spices. There really wasn't anything to balance out the Berbere paste in the Doro Wat. However, I think the Berbere paste served it's purpose. It's really can't be judged as a recipe on it's own. I will try it again sometime. The recipe deserves a 6 out of 10 at least.