Berbere

Ethiopian chilli and spice blend

Category
Basics
Cuisine
African
Serves
About 1 cup
Time
25 minutes
From
Phil Price

spice blendchilliethiopian

The backbone of Ethiopian cooking — hot, but with a long list of warm spices behind the chilli that keeps it from being merely hot. Fenugreek and ajwain are what make it taste specifically Ethiopian rather than generically spicy.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
  • 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
  • 1 teaspoon ajwain or caraway seeds
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 6 green cardamom pods
  • 4 whole cloves
  • 1 teaspoon allspice berries
  • 1/2 cup sweet paprika
  • 2 tablespoons cayenne, or to taste
  • 1 tablespoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon coarse salt

Instructions

  1. Toast the whole spices in a dry pan over medium heat until fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes. Fenugreek turns bitter if it darkens — watch it.
  2. Cool completely, then grind to a fine powder.
  3. Stir in the paprika, cayenne, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
  4. Store airtight away from light.

Notes

  • Adjust the cayenne to taste; a traditional berbere is considerably hotter than this.
  • Used in doro wat and misir wat, and good rubbed on lamb before roasting.