Day 3 of staycation, and I’m ready to be creative. I started today by cooking up some pinto beans in the slow cooker. I just used water, but you can add any flavorings you like. A couple of hours into it, I added a roasted chicken breast I had in my freezer. I’m using them for Ethiopian Staycation Stew.
For real Ethiopian dishes, you would use red lentils and cook them well. I had pintos left over, and red lentils are expensive and difficult to find.
This is just a poor girl substitute for someone living too far out in the sticks to get to a restaurant. Once the beans have softened, it can take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours on high; rinse the beans and remove them from the slow cooker.
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Layering the Stew
I’m layering the stew in the slow cooker from the strongest flavors at the bottom (the flavors you don’t want combining so much with the other flavors) to the aromatics at the top (the ones you want working their way down to the bottom of the stew).
The first layer should be a bitter green. You can use spinach if you have it or a can of Southern greens. I am using up leftovers and forgotten ingredients this week, so I used some Brussels sprouts and carrots I had in the freezer.
The next layer is a spicy pepper and tomatoes. I used frozen jalapeños and frozen garden tomatoes. The important thing is a spicy component and diced tomatoes. You can use canned if you have it. Also, if you have sweet potatoes in any form, fresh, frozen, or canned, this is a good place to add them.
The next layer is the pinto beans. I like a small bean for this. The texture is better. I’ve tried green lentils, but they don’t get soft enough. You want something you could make into a paste. I didn’t do that with mine, but you can crush them up if you’d like. This is also a good place to add garlic and onions. I didn’t put them in mine so I could share with the cats (and because I forgot).
Next was a layer of small diced potato. I cut this up fresh. It’s an important component in my mind, and you want the Ethiopian spices to shine through in this layer. That’s why I have it closer to the top. The potatoes absorb flavors, and you want to control which flavors they absorb.
On top of that, I added a sausage meatball I had taken out of the freezer and cooked for about 10 minutes on high in the air fryer. I then gave it another 5 minutes in the myMini griddle. After that, I cut it up and layered it in the slow cooker.
The final component was the leftover roasted chicken. I had gotten a roasted chicken at the store and froze away one of the breasts. I cooked that with the beans for several hours so the meat got good and stringy and would pull apart easily. I added the pulled chicken to the top of the slow cooker.
Preparing the Aromatics
Next was the aromatics. I used 4 tbsp of butter in the myMini Ramen cooker. To that I added about 4 tbsp of Italian herb mix, 1 tbsp of ground cumin, 1 tbsp poultry seasoning, 1-2 tsp of cayenne, and as much berbere seasoning as you are willing to use. This is where the Ethiopian flavor comes from, so you can’t really substitute. I used about a tbsp, but wished I had used more. It’s not cheap, though, so plan accordingly.
I let that cook in the Ramen cooker for about 10 minutes while the flavors merged. I added 2 bay leaves, a couple of spoonfuls of tomato paste, and a spoonful of chicken soup base to the top of the slow cooker.
I added the aromatics on top of that and rinsed out the Ramen cooker several times with water, adding the liquid to the top of the slow cooker each time. I then filled the slow cooker with enough water to cover the top layer and stirred the aromatics so they mixed well in the liquid. At this point, I let it cook on low for several hours. You can cook the beans ahead so you have a full day for this part if you want full flavor.
Quick Ferment Bread
The last part was the bread. This can also be started ahead. The real injera bread is left to ferment for several days and has many steps. This is more than I was willing to do for my staycation stew.
For mine, I got an old plastic container that had contained diced onions and put some holes in the top. I added wheat bread about halfway up the container. Then I added about a tbsp of sugar, 2 tbsps of yeast (you’ll want a lot for a quicker ferment), a tsp of salt, 2 tbsps of oil (you can use melted butter), and a capful of vinegar (to mimic the sour taste of a long fermentation).
I added water to just below the top of the container and mixed with a spoon. I left it to ferment all day in a bowl so any overflow would be contained. Throughout the day, I stirred the batter back down. I didn’t stir for the last 2 hours so there would be bubbles in the batter. It should look like a very loose pancake batter, or a thick crepe batter.
When I was ready to prepare dinner, I heated up my mini griddles, coated them well with butter, and poured batter in until it reached the edges. I left it to cook for about 3-5 minutes and then flipped. You can leave them longer if you prefer. I cooked them for another 3-5 minutes on the other side.
They should come out slightly rubbery so you can grip them. Pieces are broken off the pancake and used to scoop up the stew. Don’t use a fork or spoon.
Enjoy!
