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benazir's blog

Niter Kibbeh

Ok most recipes I see for this one is that you have to strain this after you finish making it and besides also butter is pretty expensive and I mix it with olive oil to stretch it out a little. Does it taste great? Yes it does and it serves its purpose. Also I make my niter kibbeh differently then other people and the taste is still there and I grind my spices before adding them in the butter mixed with olive oil and no I do not strain. For those that wants to strain that is ok and it is optional. Now I am going to show you how I did it and I still get the same results. The whole spices gets grounded in a mortar and pestle then the pulverized spices gets added to a microwave safe dish.

I have tried for the first time making niter kibbeh in the microwave. Hey before raising eyebrows please let me explain. For me this is quicker and no I am not being lazy and I may have all of my burners on my stove in use and something has to be done here.

In a microwave safe bowl I added 2 pats of butter and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Why do I do this? I do this because it is healthier.

I ground some fresh onion garlic and ginger in my mortar and pestle til I had a paste. Also to make this easier 2 cloves of garlic, 3 slices of onion or shallot and 1 small piece of ginger can be ground in to a paste in mortar and pestle or a blender by making a paste. Just add 1/4 cup of water for the ease of blending then add it to the butter mixture. I grated some nutmeg, added 1 pinch each of basil, cinnamon, turmeric powder, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, kalonji aka black seed or nigella seed, fennel seed, 1 each of green cardamom, black cardamom, clove, broken piece of star anise, ajwan, 1 pinch each of beso bella, oregano, koseret and tosim. The beso is a white powder, this goes in to the niter kibbeh and so does the koseret and tosim. These can be found at a grocery store selling Ethiopian groceries.

If you are in Chicago area there is Kukula market and that is on Broadway and one on Devon av called World Fresh Market. You can find them at these places and no they are not paying me for advertising it is just I know where to get my stuff and yes they do know me. I see there is a listing for Selam market too and that is on Sheridan. Please call before you make the trip and people who live in other places get on the net and google for in your area where they sell these goods.

As for the rest of the spices is very easy to get just go to an Indian and Pakistani food stores.

At this stage the butter should be melted and I stirred and covered it again and set it aside to use in recipes.

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