[.ca] Exotic Ethiopian Cooking: Society, Culture, and ... (ISBN 0961634529)

The ultimate guide to Ethiopian cooking:
Ethiopian food is of the best and most complicated cuisines in the world. This book is a great introduction and guide. I am writing this review because I read a review that said that this book did not have enough detail. The recipes for Injera (the Ethiopian staple bread) are the only ones that I have ever tried that actually work. If you have any doubt about what the finished product should look like, just check out the many great color photos in the book! If every country in the world had a Daniel Mesfin writing books about its cooking and culture, the world of cookbooks would be much more fascinating than it is. If you have never tried Ethiopian food, find a restaurant in your state. Then buy this book and start cooking for yourself. The book contains contact information for businesses that sell Ethiopian ingredients. This is an awesome book.

Good for some recipes, but lousy instructions:
Over all, this is a good cookbook for an experienced general cook or someone who already knows a lot about Ethiopian cooking. Some of the recipes are very good (e.g., Yemiser Kik W'et and Doro W'et are both good) but the instructions are generally poor. Unless you already know what a dish should taste like or look like, you will be left mystified by instructions like those for Injera (made from T'ef), which tell you to "cover and let stand still till the mixture rises." Given that the consistency you're looking for with an injera batter is close to a crepe or pancake batter, knowing how long it takes to rise is totally necessary unless you know what a risen pancake batter should look like. Even an experienced bread baker might need a little more instruction here. There is also insufficient explanation for why you must do some of the things you do (e.g., boiling 1 cup of the Injera mixture and then cooling it and putting it back into the original pot, to which you then add more water). It would be nice to know why some of the steps must be taken, since some of the recipes seem to be written for a chef who is beginning at the very beginning (like with whole t'ef grain, rather than with te'f flour, for example). All in all, I think this might be the best ethiopian cookbook available, and is well worth it for those, like me, who want to explore this fantastic cuisine and don't have access to a knowledgeable friend or co-worker.

Best so far, but not good enough:
This book was useful as an overview of Ethiopian cooking habits, but I found the cooking procedures to be rather incomplete. A local (Seattle) Ethiopian restaurant owner laughed out loud when I showed him the cover, with the beans standing up in the dish. He said "No, no, I've never seen that! That's not right! Nobody ever does that!" I have spent many hours figuring out how to make injera come out right, and while a few of the basics are in the book, it is not obvious (for example), that the batter needs to be mixed more than just a little BEFORE it's thinned out, and that it needs to be kept at around 80 degrees. Not a big deal if you're in Ethiopia, but -- I'm not! I have not used any of the recipes without changing them in some way. Part of this could be due to regional influences, but I've had excellent authentic Ethiopian fare before that was not altered to suit western tastebuds. This book is good as a basic resource (mainly ingredient lists and general information on preparation of wot and shiro), but it lacks the details that food enthusiasts in colder climates need.