Marinated Portobello Shiitake Mushrooms Sautéed with Red Onions

Chefs Berekti and Akberet Mengistu are sisters and owners of Ethiopian restaurant Mesob in Montclair, New Jersey. The sisters came from Ethiopia in 1999 and opened Mesob together in 2003. We talked to the sister chefs about their delicious mushroom dish called ingudai tibs, a traditional Ethiopian dish.

“`Ingudai’ means mushrooms in Ethiopian and `tibs’ is the cooking method used in the dish,” said Chef Berekti.? For the many Ethiopians who are Orthodox Christian, a number of fasting days require them to avoid eating meat or dairy, which is why Ethiopian cuisine is full of so many amazing vegetarian dishes. Ingudai tibs is made with sautéed Portabella mushrooms, red onions, garlic, jalape?os, tomatoes and awaze sauce, which is made from spicy red peppers. This dish is served with bread called injera, which is used to scoop up mouthfuls of food.

Ingudai Tibs: Marinated Portobello Sautéed with Red Onions, Garlic, Jalape?o Pepper, Fresh Tomato, Herbs and Spices

Chefs Berekti and Akberet Mengistu, Mesob Restaurant, Montclair, NJ

Ingredients:

3 large Portabella mushrooms

2  cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tablespoonfresh chopped parsley red onion, chopped

 large fresh tomato, chopped

As needed olive oil

To taste freshly ground black pepper and salt

To taste jalapeno, chopped (Use 1 for medium to hot dish)

1 teaspoon  Awaze (Ethiopian chili paste)

Directions:

Clean and remove stemsSauté the onion and garlic in olive oilAdd the sliced Portabellas and tomatoes, and sauté until Portabellas are tenderAdd jalapeno and Awaze (Ethiopian chili paste) for medium to hot dishAdd black pepper and salt to tasteGarnish with parsley and serve with Injera.

Total preparation and cooking time: 7-10mins

Note about Injera:

Injera is large, crepe-like bread upon which a stew is served and with which one eats the stew served upon it.? One tears a small piece of injera, wraps it around a mouthful of stew, and consumes it!? Injera is made with teff, a tiny, round grain.

Teff is the most common cereal crop used to make injera.? It is a tiny, round, khaki-colored grain closely resembling millet.? Its scientific name is Eragrostis, teff.? “Teffa,” the Amharic word for “lost,” is so named because of Teff’s small size.? It’s the smallest grain in the world and often is lost in the harvesting and threshing process because of its size.? Three thousand grains of Teff weigh one gram.