Berbere

Hi,

The other day I was just sharking the kitchen. That's what I call it. Envision yourself going from cabinet to cabinet, in and out of the refrigerator, with the theme from the movie "Jaws" playing in your head. Yes, that is what I was doing. I had no idea what to cook and unfortunately for me I was legitimately hungry which creates another problem. I'm probably willing to eat stupid things rather than having a plan and executing some really creative dish.
I fought the urge to just eat cold cereal and milk as yes, I do have a family to feed as well. I asked them for input but, NO ONE WOULD HELP ME!!
Go and shark the freezer.

After a few minutes there, and I do have some really interesting things in my freezer, I found some boneless pork ribs. I defrosted them (I use the microwave partially, then place them on one of those defrosting trays made of black metal - they really do work). And then went looking in the larder for suggestions of what to do. My eyes wandered around a bit and then fell on the jars that I just got at Whole Foods. One of the was: Berbere.

According to Wikipedia: Berbere is a spice mixture whose ingredients usually include chile peppers, ginger, cloves, coriander, allspice, rue berries, and ajwain. It is a key ingredient in the cuisines of Ethiopia and Eritrea (this is a newer country that borders Ethiopia). Basically, African cuisine with a good degree of spice.
The blend that I was using, when I gave it a good sniff, you could easily smell the cloves and allspice. Rue, or rue berries come from the rue plant. I have a very large herb garden, and I used to grow rue in it, not to eat but it would keep many pesky insects off the other herbs, especially basil. So I was familiar with this one. The berries when dried, looked like reddish peppercorns, and have a bitter, slightly musky scent. It is quite popular in African cooking as well as some parts of Italy. Ajwain is a seed spice that has a rather parsley quality to it.
My blend also didn't have the chile peppers ground, but looked like the red pepper you would shake on your pizza which I use in cooking all the time.
I decided to take the pork ribs and use this spice as a dry rub, marinating it for about 30 minutes at room temperature while I got the other ingredients for dinner together.

Slightly spicy entree with the cinnamon and cloves did scream for something starchy to take the edge off. Again in the larder and I found polenta.

Dinner :
Berbere crusted grilled boneless pork ribs with Parmesan and cream- soft polenta and green beans.
Grilling the pork ribs was definitely the way to go. They were very juicy, somewhat spicy and grilling them let the berbere crust them in a way that I definitely would repeat.

Try the Berbere spice. If you should cause to purchase some it will probably be worth the spice amount you will spend. My family definitely liked the entree and felt it did go well with the polenta (and usually I'm the only one who likes the polenta - me and the dog). This spice would definitely work well with chicken, turkey and probably duck as well. I think it would fight with beef.

If anyone else has recipes using this I would love to hear them, post or email as you feel led.

Till next week.... DP