Restaurants

The cut: stewing steak
The dish: Eritrean stew

As part of our bullock Del Boy’s afterlife, the plan is to allow him to experience foreign cultures that he never even dreamed of while grazing happily on the Yorkshire Moors. Two weeks ago, my colleague transformed him into South African biltong, but my mission for this column is to take him up the east African coast to Eritrea. In research I did on the Eritrean community in London some years ago, whether I was dancing the conga for Eritrean Independence Day (May 24), or watching Eritrean children splash enthusiastically under grey skies across a football pitch, one common theme predominated: their pride in their national cuisine. When any of them talked about it, you could almost hear the hum of their tastebuds. It’s not difficult to become a convert. The Eritrean palate craves hotly spiced meaty stews – a mix of chicken, lamb or beef with a riot of aromatic spices including chillis, cardamon pods, turmeric, cinnamon and cloves. These are almost always served on top of injera – a tangy circular flatbread, rather like a squishy pancake. Since Eritreans traditionally do not eat with knives and forks, they rip off pieces of injera with their right hands, and use it to scoop up the stew. With your lips tingling from the chillis and your hands scooping up the warm stew in the yeasty injera, it’s a richly sensual experience. With fond memories and gung-ho enthusiasm, I announce to several people at work that I am going to make injera bread to accompany my stew. After all, how hard can it be to make a yeasty pancake? But a couple of minutes’ research shows that the process gives a whole new meaning to slow food. Not only is it desirable – if you’re making it properly – to do it with teff flour (which can be bought from Earth Natural Foods, 200 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2AE, 020 7482 2211/www.earthnaturalfoods.co.uk), but you’re then advised, after mixing it with water, to let it ferment for about three days in a bowl covered with a dish towel.
Worried that the stewing steak will do a bit of fermenting of its own if left too long, I realise I am going to have to cheat. Despite their political differences, the cuisines of the neighbouring Ethiopian and Eritrean communities remain very similar. So I phone Lalibela, the Ethiopian restaurant in Tufnell Park (137 Fortess Road, NW5 2HR, 020 7284 0600) near my home and ask if they do takeaway injera bread. Half an hour and £2 later, I have everything I need as a basis for the meal.
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The rest, as with the best cuisines, is in the spices. So vividly coloured, they make the plate where they’re prepared look like a Fauve artist’s palette, they combine with the stewing steak to fill our small N7 kitchen with the lively aromas of east Africa. Rachel Halliburton

Eritrean stew
Finely chop two onions. Melt 200g of butter in a pan, and add onions. Stir until browned. Then add 1 tbsp chopped ginger, 2 chopped red bird’s eye chillies, 1 tbsp paprika, 1 tsp cumin, half tsp each of ground turmeric, cinnamon, and cardamon, and quarter tsp powdered cloves. Stir for a minute, then add 1kg of stewing steak. Once it is has browned, pour in a can of chopped tomatoes. Leave to simmer for two hours.

We bought our longhorn, Del Boy, at Ginger Pig. For further information about Borut’s butchery classes, see www.thegingerpig.co.uk.