My love of Teff Love (Amazon, B&N), an Ethiopian cookbook by the fabulous Kittee Berns, of Cake Maker to the Stars blog, runs deep. I know I'm a little late to the festivities, but I can't imagine not gushing, along with everyone else, about the brilliance of this book.
I won't go into the details of the book, as I am sure others have done that quite well in my stead (check out Teff Love's blog tour HERE). I'm just here to give you my take on the dishes.
Having bought and used Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food, Kittee's zine, religiously, I knew that the recipes in this book would be at least equally good, but I wasn't really prepared for just how amazing the dishes in Teff Love turned out to be.
There are a few helpful suggestions to keep in mind before cooking Kittee's incredible food; these will put the recipes into the uppermost tier of fabulousness.
The first step to delicious and authentic Ethiopian is to ensure you have injera, the flat, sourdough bread used as both utensil and a delicious tool to sop up the yummy gravies. Of course, even tortillas or pita is better than not making any of the dishes due to lack of injera.
The second step in making any of Kittee's dishes successfully, is to prepare the seasoned oil, ye'qimem zeyet, page 25. Although Kittee gives you the option to use olive oil instead of the seasoned oil, since the recipe is so easy and returns so much in flavor, I highly, highly recommend it.
The third absolutely necessary component of even the smallest Ethiopian feast is a salad, page 133. As you can tell, each of the platters I made has a simple salad as a component. The salad provides a fresh, cooling accompaniment to the other dishes. The dressing is a simple vinaigrette, page 145 or 146.
We are lucky enough to live near an Ethiopian restaurant in San Diego (albeit, one that serves meat as well), but truly, the recipes within Kittee's volume are heads and shoulders above anything we could ever have here.
All in all, this really is a volume you should own. Period. If you haven't had Ethiopian food before, Teff Love is the most excellent way to get some of this ah-mazing grub on your plate. If you are among the lucky ones already initiated into the club, you can't beat all the creative and downright delicious food Kittee shares with us. And don't you just love the title??
I'm itching to share this wonderful cookbook with someone, so make sure to enter below for your chance to win a copy of Teff Love. To be eligible to win you must be following this blog via email or RSS feed (link). Contest is open to US residents only and ends Monday, August 17. Good luck!
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