Out of Africa...

My globe trotting friend Karly recently came back from a year long stint in Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopa to be more accurate. She came back with beautiful pictures, exciting stories and, to my glee, some Ethiopian recipes.

I have eaten Ethiopian food many times before in the Ethiopian district in Los Angeles, located near Fairfax and Olympic. It's only a stone's throw away from the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). This makes for a lovely afternoon full of art appreciation and good food. These self indulgent afternoons were the only times I was able to delight in this cuisine. Ethiopian dishes are known to take hours to prepare. So when Karly announced that we would be enjoying our meal within an hour I thought "inconceivable.!".

The meal we were preparing consisted of Ugali, Shiro, and Tibs.

Ugali is what it is called in Tanzania and Kenya but it has several other regional names. Ugali is commonly made out of ground maize and water. It's a staple starch in most African meals much like rice or pasta is in other parts of the world.

Shiro is thick vegetable compote that is thickened with Shiro flour which is made up of ground chickpeas and beans with various spices. Upon smelling the Shiro flour I could smell cumin but could not make out the other spices. (Karly brought the Shiro flour back from Ethiopia; I hope to be able to find it at the Ethiopian market.)

Tibs is meat and or vegetables that are sauteed rather than cooked in a stew.

Measuring spoons? We don't need no stinkin measuring spoons. This meal was prepared like Karly had done it in Africa, intuitively with no measuring.

We did however use the convenience of a food processor in making the Shiro which consisted of finely chopping 3 medium sized tomatoes, 1 large red onion, and 2 cloves of garlic into a puree. We put it into a large pot added 2 jalapeno peppers then brought it to a boil. We then reduced the heat, put the lid on, and let it simmer for about 15 min.

This is the Shiro flour.

Finally after simmering, add the Shiro powder; we added 3-4 spoonfuls. You want to add the powder until you get the consistency that is to your personal preference.


Ugali is traditionally made up of ground maize and water. We used masa flour for the Ugali. The Ugali is made up of the masa flour and water at about 1:1 ratio.

You want it to be about the consistency of really thick oatmeal, without the lumps :)

We started the Tibs by dicing red onion and a jalapeno pepper in the pan with some oil. We used grape seed oil, but pretty much any oil will work.

Then we added the yummy stew cut beef. This was sautéed till well done.

Ta Da!

Should be eaten with your hands! Well actually I was informed after I had both of my greedy hands in this dish that it should be eaten only using the right hand. You gather a golf ball size scoop of the Ugali in your hand which you use to dip in the Shiro and or pick up the Tibs.