Misir Wot (berbere lentil stew) with Injera

See the little crumpet looking bread bits? Those are injera, an Ethiopian sourdough flatbread made from teff flour. The orangey-red stew intermingled is the misir wot. Although you can't discern the two components of the stew texturally, you get all the essential flavors (sourdough, berbere, lentils, spiced butter) in one bite.

Flavor: 9/10

Ease at home: 9/10

Ease at camp: 10/10
Heat level: 8/10 

Times made: 2

This one I'm really excited about, because I love Ethiopian food, I love lentils, and I love easy, comforting, one pot meals. This is also easily vegan-adaptable, you just have to find (or make) vegan nitter kibbeh, or spiced ghee. I guess the niter kibbeh is optional altogether, but you'd lose out on a lot of flavor and precious fat.

At the time of writing this post, I've made this recipe for two trips already. I can think of a few ways to adjust or improve it, but the damn stuff is so tasty it hardly needs fixing. In the coming months I'd love to think of more Ethiopian wots (stews) to prepare and bring. They're so full-flavored, satisfying, and enjoyable on the trail.

Mmm, glistening lentil mush.

Recipe:

I adapted my recipe from Sheba's Ethiopian Restaurant, omitting the cinnamon and sauteeing in a minimal amount of oil, just enough to enable browning and prevent burning, around 2 T. I used less oil to minimize the risk of spoilage/rancidity in case it would be a while until I was able to use the meal on a trip. I erred toward around 1/2 cup of of berbere because really, if you can handle the heat, the more berbere the better, and mine's getting a little old so its potency is waning. I also added in an extra T of garlic and ~2t of ginger shortly before the end because I like the spiciness of garlic and ginger that have only been cooked briefly.

The misir wot dehydrated for around 10 hours at 135, flipping once. I then broke it up a bit in the food processor to save space and facilitate even rehydration.

To compensate for the omitted oil, I packed in about 2T/person of fresh niter kibbeh, purchased from a local Ethiopian market (or: untested recipe here), frozen & vacuum sealed in a small pouch, and stirred it in after rehydrating. I kept it in the freezer for freshness until we left town. This spiced butter is so good you're going to be wishing you brought more to dip your tortillas in, so trust me, bring a lot.

Niter Kibbeh

Finally, I tore up a bunch of injera and dehydrated it until crisp, mixed in with the dehydrated wot, and vacuum sealed.

Resist the urge to pick out and munch on all the injera chips while waiting for the water to boil

At camp:

Boil enough water to cover + 1/2 inch. I can't tell you exactly how much water that is, but I can offer a tip for making sure you're using the right quantity. Usually I'll eyeball the initial quantity of water, boiling a little more than I know I'll need. Then once the water is boiling, I'll remove 2 cups of it, reserving in another container just in case. I'll then pour the food (in this case misir wot) into the pot to rehydrate, and add back in boiling water as needed. If I add too much, I'll either drain it off, or cook it off later.

In any case, when the water is boiling, add in your misir wot/water until you're satisfied it's the right amount. Err on the side of not enough, because you can always add more later, but taking water out takes fuel. Cover, store in a cozy, and wait patiently around 15 minutes. Once everything is nice and stewy, stir in the butter. Enjoy with a side of beano.

Potential future improvements:

It was well agreed among the group that the injera chips were totally delicious, and we wished we had more of them. Next time I want to pack the injera chips separately, slightly larger in size (chip size), and eat them like chips + dip with the wot. This might put the flavor up to 10/10!

Sunset at Evolution Lake, enshrouded in smoke from the nearby Rough Fire.