Recipes from Tekebash and Saba: Recipes from the Horn of Africa, by Saba Alemayoh
Food seems to be the most tangible window into culture and the stories that make up a life. For us, it has always gone beyond simply sustenance. Food is revered in its own right, like music and dance. There are events around the preparation of food, not just the consumption. For large celebrations everyone comes together to peel tonnes of onions and make litres of honey wine. Women are firmly allocated to the coffee station, and some are simply invited to provide entertainment with sentences that always start with 'Remember...'. Living so far from our homeland, there is an unwritten policy that when travelling to Tigray to visit family, you must empty your luggage of all clothing and fill it with as many spices as you can muster past customs. We would try to make clandestine exits from Australia so that friends didn't plead with us to just bring back one or two kilos of shiro for them in our haul. This idea inspired me to share my mother's kitchen with the Melbourne culinary scene in 2015 by opening Saba's Ethiopian Restaurant. This is not your regular cookbook! The recipes are the legacy of an extraordinary woman - my mother, Tekebash Gebre - born in Tigray in the shadows of the Aksumite dynasty, under the rule of the last Ethiopian emperor. Her formative years were spent under a communist regime before she fled to Sudan during a civil war that gripped the nation for 17 years. She has been on a migration journey ever since, but her heart continues to beat to the drums of Tigray. Despite having spent more time abroad than she has at home, she is unequivocally Tigraweyti. That is the complexity of identity and home: it cannot be captured by the status of your citizenship, but rather it is an intangible mark within your being. She has worked with food in one way or another all her life, from landing her first job as a live-in cook in Khartoum, being a housewife, becoming a street-food vendor to raise a child, working as a kitchen hand in restaurants below minimum wage in Australia and being a head chef at her daughter's restaurant on one of Melbourne's most competitive hospitality strips. My mother not only worked with food but loved her children through it too. As I went through her door she would hold a utility bill in one hand, yelling at me to ring them so they can explain why her bill was higher than it should be, which was followed immediately by 'What do you want to eat?'. My mama's Tigray cuisine was developed in diaspora communities on her journey across continents. Sudanese food in particular has always been intertwined, with some dishes merged and some ingredients adopted into existing recipes, but some are kept distinctly separate. When we opened the restaurant, it was booked out for two weeks straight and won accolades beyond our imagination, from The New York Times, Broadsheet and beyond. I tell you this to say that the woman is good, and potentially a pan whisperer. Throughout the five years of running Saba's Ethiopian Restaurant, we never had a recipe book or any measuring equipment, simply her taste buds. I attempted to write the restaurant recipes down but my mother refused - she preferred to work without recipes. So, she cooked using her tongue and I managed front of house from the heart. Food is the way Tegaru show love and keep culture alive, and we wanted the food to be true to us. We have now finally sat down together to write these recipes to share with you a delectable story, I suppose. I call this book Tekebash & Saba. Food is our familial cord to each other, and to home. It's a window into our story and that of Tegaru. You can leave out the lamb to make this dish vegan. Ingredients Method 1. In a saucepan, saute the onion in sunflower oil over medium heat until soft. Add the garlic and saute until translucent. 2. Add the dilik and turn the heat down to low. Keep stirring, adding water as necessary to stop it sticking. 3. Add the tomato and cumin and cook until the tomatoes are soft. It should take approximately 15 minutes. 4. Add the meat, stir, then add enough water to submerge the meat. Increase the heat to medium and cook for approximately 20 minutes, until tender. 5. While the meat cooks, chop the okra. You want to cut off both ends of the okra and chop it to the same size as the meat. 6. Once the meat is almost cooked - about five minutes away - add the okra and salt to taste. Cook for around five to seven minutes, until the okra is tender. Avoid overcooking the okra, as it has a tendency to become slimy. Serves 6. Ingredients Method 1. Using a dry non-stick frying pan over medium heat, roast all the dry ingredients except for the chilli powder and salt, until the aromas go out. This should take approximately five minutes. Tip them onto a plate and leave to cool down. 2. Once cooled, use a blender to grind the spices into a smooth, fine texture. 3. Transfer this mixture to a food processor, add the chilli powder and salt and mix the ingredients well. 4. Add 750ml water and the oil and mix until it's firm and looks like playdough. Put in a container with a tight-fitting lid and store in the fridge for up to one year. Tips: When using this mixture, scoop it out using a dry spoon and avoid double-dipping to ensure your paste doesn't go off. I recommend making this recipe in bulk as it stores well, but you can reduce the quantity if you prefer. Makes about 1kg. In Tigray there are special "meat houses". These are restaurants with butcheries attached that usually serve meat exclusively. You choose your cut and have it cooked for you. It is not customary that vegetables accompany meat. Ingredients Method 1. Heat some sunflower oil in a stockpot or saucepan over medium heat and brown the beef, using tongs to turn it, then add some salt. The beef will start to release its fats; let it cook in them. Take the beef off the heat once all the liquid has evaporated. 2. Heat some more oil in a frying pan over medium heat and saute the onions, capsicum and chilli for about one minute. 3. Add the tesmi, meat, paprika to taste and toss until brown. For the last minute of cooking add the rosemary sprigs, then remove. 4. Serve with injera and a side of awaze. Tip: You can pat your meat dry and sprinkle it with cornflour and salt before cooking to ensure tenderness. Serves 2. Spiced butter is used predominantly when cooking meat dishes and can be made using margarine if you are vegan. Ingredients Method 1. In a dry frying pan over medium heat toast the fenugreek seeds until they are a light brown colour. 2. Grind the fenugreek and cardamom seeds in a blender for a few seconds, until coarsely ground. 3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over the lowest heat. 4. Add all the ingredients to the pot and stir for 15-20 minutes until the onion and garlic become brown. 5. Remove from the heat and let it sit until it cools down but doesn't solidify. Strain the butter into a dry container. This will last for months in the fridge. Makes about 3 cups. You'll need to start this recipe two days ahead, but most of th
Monday, March 13, 2023 at 1:00 pm