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3.05.2020

Ethiopian spiced liver

I wanted to make liver for dinner, and decided to prepare it like I would Ethiopian tibs (my version, taught me by my friend, apparently they vary), which involves small, diced pieces of beef that are cooked well in spiced butter, with onions and jalapenos and spices. The beef pieces get all nice and charred and chewy. There is a common Ethiopian liver dish called dulet, which I have had once before, served mixed with (raw or cooked) beef in spiced butter and with mitmita spice, and (sometimes? always?) with tripe. This is not that. This is just regular cooked chicken liver, with Ethiopian spices.

It turned out amazing! I made it with some charred onions and peppers, and had Tikel Gomen, my go-to cabbage dish, along-side. Yum. I didn't actually measure out the spices, so this is my estimate. I like my chicken liver cooked sort of medium: browned on the outside, but soft and pinkish in the middle. That is what I did here, and all the spices fried up in the butter and made great little flavor bits.

Ethiopian Spiced Liver
glug of ghee/butter/olive oil
1 red onion, roughly chopped in wedges
1 green pepper, roughly chopped
1 lb chicken livers
1 T Ethiopian cardamom*
1/4 tsp mitmita spice (or less as preferred; it's spicy)
2 T niter kibbeh (spiced ghee)
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 small jalepeno, diced small
*Ethiopian cardamom is more coarsely ground, and is also called "false cardamom" or "Korarima." It is a black cardamom from the ginger family, not the smaller green pods of Indian cardamom. I have a supply of the stuff from Ethiopia, but you can also buy it at Shega Foods, along with mitmita spice mix, which is spicy! So use it mindfully. (One site I found says if you do not have Ethiopian false cardamom, use regular cardamom and add a touch of nutmeg, cloves, and black pepper.)

1) Heat regular butter/ghee or olive oil in a small/med cast iron pan on med-high heat. Add the onions and saute for a few minutes to soften and separate the wedges into pieces. Add green peppers and saute another couple of minutes. *I then put the pan under the broiler, stirring every so often to turn the veggies over and get an even better char. You could also continue on the stove.
2) Heat a medium-large cast iron pan on medium heat, and add the niter kibbeh. When it is melted, add the liver pieces in one layer. Brown on one side for 3-4 minutes, and then flip. They will likely spatter some, so I used a mesh grease guard thing. (Or you could do what I did not, which is to dry the liver pieces a bit so they are less wet.)
3) Sprinkle spices over all of the pieces of liver so each piece gets a bit of everything. Especially make sure to distribute the cardamom evenly. Add the jalapeno and fry it along with the liver.
4) Continue stirring several more minutes. You are cooking the liver so it gets browned and coated in spices and butter, flipping or stirring as needed until it is to your liking. Mine probably cook for a total of 7-8 minutes.

Serve the liver with the now charred onions and peppers, and any scraped up bits from the pan (primarily cardamom and spiced butter). This would all be tasty with injera too, if you have some on hand!

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