Around the World in Foodventures (Eritrea: ZIGINI with INJERA)

I picked Eritrea this week because it's rather obscure but also because I remember when I was in high school (or maybe it was 7th or 8th grade? -- it was a fuzzy long time ago 😛) I was on some regional student counsel type thingie, and there was a girl from another school who was originally from Eritrea....so here we are.

Zigini, I am guessing based on how it's cooked, is a dish that is meant to turn any cut of meat or offal (expensive, cheap, tough, or already tender) into a delightfully fall-apart, intensely flavorful stew.  And it delivers!  The finished product looks thusly:

Completing this cook was a multi-day process, but only because the Injera dough had to be left to ferment for 48 hours.  The Berbere Spice (which was a fresh, not dried mixture) and the stew itself could have been done all in one day.  Here is the recipe I followed:  https://nationalfoods.org/recipe/national-dish-of-eritrea-zigini-with-injera.  (I note that the Zigini portion of the recipe mentions adding onions, but the ingredient list for that part doesn't have any -- so I just guessed and used half of a small onion, diced, which seemed to work out perfectly fine.)

I don't really have a lot else to say other than that the meat stew here is absolutely amazing and delicious, and I will make it again (probably for our weekly potluck sometime sooner rather than later).  But honestly, I've never been much of a fan of Injera -- it's pretty nondescript and plain, if you ask me, and the fact that it smells like cocoa powder but doesn't taste like isn't necessarily disappointing....but just odd to me.  I mean, I guess it's not really meant to be eaten on it's own, and with the meat folded inside it's just fine and certainly doesn't detract, so I guess I rescind my "complaint."  😉

This post is part of my project: "Around the World in Foodventures" (I decided I want to expand my culinary horizons even further by making the national dish or a popular recipe, or some signature food or traditional meal from every country in the world. Maybe it'll happen alphabetically, or by region, in random order, or something else. I figure if we can't (yet?) travel everywhere, we at least have the luxury of being able to taste it. It’ll be fun and interesting, but obviously, will take a long time to get through -- as we'll only be doing it once a week or so at most. I am chronicling the journey here.)

“If I’m an advocate of anything, it’s to move…Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food.” --Tony Bourdain