Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Injera Report

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Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Injera Report

POSTED: Friday, August 6, 2010, 8:08 PM
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If you’re a food nerd like me, you can’t watch Top Chef without screaming obscenities at the contestants while peacefully pondering what you’d whip up for Transcendently Beautiful Padma each episode. If a case of backseat cooking is what ails ya, dig this fresh weekly column featuring recipes based on each Top Chef Quickfire challenge. “Have fun making injera,” read the text from Drew Lazor, zapped to my phone as I gaped at Philly-chef-for-a-hot-minute/life-ruiner Marcus Samuelson on the TV screen. Sammy, born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, had just unleashed a monster of a Quickfire on the Top Chef contestant: prepare your take on an Ethiopian dish. And now I had to too. I considered making injera from scratch until I found out I’d have to ferment the pancake-like batter for three days. Shortcut: I scooped some of the unleavened Ethiopian bread at West Philly’s sunny Kaffa Crossing. The gentleman behind the counter seemed impressed your (white)boy was cooking a wat (stew) for dinner and assented to my begging for injera to go, which they typically don’t do. “Ok. Delivery will be here in five minutes,” and soon a guy rolled in carrying a laundry basket full of the giant wheat-hued sourdough rounds. He made me buy a whole bag (about a dozen layers) for $6, and I hauled them out like a heap of heavy Persian rugs. I’ve never cooked Ethiopian, but I have cooked chicken. So what I’ve prepared for you today is a chicken wat, a la reasoning of Jersey Kev, with eggplant and chard. The stew’s doctored with a pilau spice blend I smuggled home from Tanzania, a short hop to Ethiopia, earlier this year. The fragrant potpourri of cumin, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and cinnamon is typically used to flavor rice, but I’ve got it crusting Mountain View Poultry pastured chicken legs, an economic cut for an economic wat. This dish feed four for about $20.

Pilau Chicken Wat with Lime-Clove Raita(feeds 4)

Go Get This: ...for the chicken 4 whole legs chicken 2 oz. pilau spice (buy it at spice stores or make your own by toasting and grinding cumin, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and cinnamon) 1 medium eggplant, cubed 1 shallot, roughly chopped 1 bunch rainbow chard (or other sturdy green), stemmed and chopped into large ribbons ½ jalapeno 1 bottle dark beer 1 quart chicken stock 2 tbsp. olive oil Salt and pepper, to taste ...for the raita 1 cup plain yogurt ½ cucumber, seeded and finely diced ½ lime, juiced 1 tsp. cloves, toasted and ground Salt and pepper, to taste Now Do This: First, preheat the oven to 300. Then, make the raita by combining the yogurt, lime juice, ground cloves and salt and pepper to taste in a mixing bowl. Whisk together and gently fold in diced cucumbers. Cover with plastic wrap and chill. Get the olive oil warming in deep-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat. For the chicken, lay the legs out in a baking dish and liberally rub both sides with salt, pepper and pilau spices. (You can do this ahead of time, if you’d like; just cover a refrigerate.) Once the oil is hot, sear the legs skin-side down, two at a time. If your pot is bigger than mine, feel free to do them all at once. The spices will toast and skin will brown up in about 8 minutes. Flip and sear an additional 8 minutes. Transfer chicken back to the baking dish and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the eggplant to the pan. Saute 5 minutes. Add the shallots and jalapeno. Saute an additional 5 minutes. Deglaze with a splash of beer, scraping up all the delicious brown chicken bits on the bottom of the pan. Return chicken to the pot, cover with remaining beer and stock, and finally add the chard. Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook at 300. After 2 and ½ hours, wat’s up. Serve over injera with raita on the side. Eat with hands.

Tweets that mention Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Injera Report :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com
Posted 2010-08-06 16:05:09
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lisa Chan-Simms, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Wat up, P? @adamerace cooks Ethiopian for this week's Not So Quickfire challenge http://tinyurl.com/2cvc4yc [...] 

Adam Erace
Posted 2010-08-08 00:19:03
Pequea is the bomb for sure. Thick but not Greek-thick, tangy but not so much that you need to sweeten it. God bless the Amish.

Dave
Posted 2010-08-06 16:39:01
now I got the hungers for Abyssinia's Kitfo, a carnivore's dish

Danya
Posted 2010-08-07 20:41:25
Nice use of Pequea yogurt, btw

Notes from the Weekend: August 9 :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper
Posted 2010-08-09 18:43:55
[...] This Sunday, get "closer to the roaster" at La Colombe• More 13th Street Philly froyo!?• Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Injera Report Video Blog• Behind the Scenes with Kurt Vile• PSN Dodgeball Leagues• Tricking [...] 

danya
Posted 2010-08-06 15:18:45
Almaz Cafe on 20th & Walnut also has injera. Very tasty, too.

danya
Posted 2010-08-06 15:27:03
Oh.... already mentioned. That's what I get for reading the recipe prior to the recap.
Posted by Adam Erace @ 8:08 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews herethose are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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