Berbere (Ethiopian Chile and Spice Paste)

(This is the first in a series of several posts about my Ethiopian birthday feast.)

Often when I cook dinner, I forget that there are spices other than salt, pepper and garlic. Pouring over the ingredients lists for the Ethiopian dishes I planned to make certainly woke me up to the critical role spices can play in food. This berbere paste is no exception. It's a rich, thick spice paste that contains just the right amount of heat.

I had few of the ingredients for this ambitious spice mix in my pantry, and I ended up visiting four grocery stores to pick up all the ingredients I needed. The recipe calls for such small quantities of the most uncommon ingredients that I'll be able to prepare several more batches of berbere using what I have leftover.

This recipe requires you to prepare ingredients several different ways: mincing, boiling, sauteing, toasting, grinding, and pureeing. But the steps went quickly, and I found it easy to work on the different steps simultaneously. The complete spice mix came together in less than 30 minutes, and I stored it away in an antique canning jar for good measure.

Berbere is a key player in many of the Ethiopian dishes I'm creating, but I could also see it working great as a rub for grilled meats.

Look for this spice mix to debut in some Robert Linxe chocolate truffles any day now!