Mit'in Shiro

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Translation: Hot Powdered Peas & Beans

Cuisine: Ethiopian

Recipe Type: Spice

Vegetarian / Vegan: Vegan

This recipe for shiro, a spicy powdered mixture of beans, peas, and spices, is used in many Ethiopian dishes. We've posted the recipe just as we received it to preserve the authenticity, but you could obviously reduce the portions. Again, this recipe was written by locals, so you might not be able to find all the spices (or t'ej, an Ethiopian mead) or your sun may not be hot enough (doubtful) to roast the spices outside (be thankful), so use a low oven instead.

Ingredients:

11 cups peas
5 cups lentils
5 cups chick peas
5 cups beans - can be mixed
5 cups berbere
1 cup garlic fresh and chopped
1 cup ginger fresh and chopped
1 cup red onion
1 cup rue seeds
1 cup oregano
2 TB fenugreek
1 cup sacred basil
15 pods cardoon seeds
2 tablespoons cloves
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon bishop's weed (ajwain seed)
1 tablespoon coriander powder
Salt to taste
2 cups water, wine or t'ej

Directions:

Wash the peas, lentils, chick peas and beans separately, boil in water for 3-5 minutes and drain. Place in in the hot sun for a while and before they are dry, roast separately. Remove cardoon seeds from pods, discard any burnt seeds, and grind. Take the ginger, garlic, onion, rue and oregano and pound in mortar and pestle together until fine.

Mix ground cardoon, berbere, and coriander with 2 cups of water (or T'ej). Put in a large bowl, cover and leave overnight. The next morning, spread the mixture out on a clean mat in the sun to dry. In a frying pan with thick bottom, dry roast sacred basil, fenugreek, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, salt and bishop's weed over a low fire for 3 minutes. When dry grind to a fine powder using a coffee grinder and add to mixture. Store in a dry place, in a tight closed container. When dried enough, may be kept indefinitely. Use small amounts as needed.

Submitted By: Miep Kesseler

Prep Time: 2 days

Cooking Time: n/a

Servings: Many

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