Behold, our 7th annual Christmas day international cook. We decided to try our hands at something we had never done before. Countries in the running included Russia (don’t even get me started), Czech Republic (see, I wanted to say Prague, but my beautiful and correct wife kept saying, “that’s a city not a country”, so I correctly identified it as Czech Republic) and Africa (yes, a continent and not a country but there are so many cool countries to choose from there).
We chose Ethiopia because of a rather random and delicious lunch we had at Gojo in Nashville (our perfect kind of place; tiny nondescript building on the side of a busy highway which looks super uninviting but is packed with awesomeness. you know it’s right if they snarl at you when you walk in).
We found this cook to have deep, smoky flavors with lots of heat, tons of fresh garlic and ginger, and plenty of vegetables. We did not use utensils (ok, one of us did not and one of us got frustrated and said ‘I am in my damn house and I will use a fork if I want to! ‘Murrica!’) We used delicious homemade injera bread to scoop up small bites of stew and veggies. The meal itself was slow and leisurely and we had a blast. Enjoy.
Planning and prepping:
All the ginger 
All the onions 
So much chopping 
Grinding them spices 
A most careful plan
The cook:
Sauce simmering 
Green beans searing 
Lentils getting ready 
Sambusa filling 
Sambusas getting ready to bake 
Injera bubbling
The finished dishes:
Atakilt Wat: Carrot and cabbage stew 
Azifa: Green lentil salad 
Doro Wat: Super spicy chicken stew 
Fossolia: Green beans with garlic and ginger 
Sambusas: pastry with vegetarian filling 
Tibs: Seared beef tips with veggies 
The spread 
The plate 
A small bite
International Cooking Holiday 