Eritrean Cuisine

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Eritrea- Cooking and Food

Overview of Eritrean Cuisine History
Eritrea is located in the North East Africa and it borders Ethiopia to the south, Djibouti to the south-east and Sudan to the north-west and the Red Sea to the north and north-east. Due to the fact that Eritrea has been until 1950 colonized by the Turks, Italians and the British, the country has kept many of these countries culinary influences. However, the staples foods in Eritrea remained traditional. They include cassava, yam, rice, plantain, potato, maize, beans and millet. Eritrea has fertile soil and the most common crops are cereals, peanuts vegetables and fruits. People from Eritrea prefer poultry, beef, and pork meat while fish consumption is quite low. The main staples of Eritrean cuisine are kitcha, which is a thin, baked unleavened wheat bread or pancake and injera, a soft pancake made from teff, wheat and/or barley, maize or sorghum. Italian dishes such as pizza, spaghetti, lasagna are very common in Eritrean cuisine.

Cuisines of Eritrea


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createpageform-eritrean The cuisine of Eritrea is based on an exotic combination of spices both tough and fine. The foundation of Eritrean cuisine is injera, which is traditional bread that looks like a big, soft, spicy pancake. Because Eritrea is a poor country there are many people who can afford to buy meat and they replace meat with chickpea porridge variedly prepared with the famous injera. Although they live near the Red Sea and there are found numerous species of fish like tuna, red snapper, kingfish, sardines people from Eritrea consume fish in very small quantities. Italian culinary influences were the one which where best conserved in the Eritrean cuisine. Eritrean cuisine is quite reach is sauces such as red pepper and yellow sauces. Eritrean dishes are characterized by the diversity of spices used to give them their exotic flavor. Poultry, pork and beef are the most common meat used in Eritrean cuisine.

Eritrean Food Glossary
Finding the ingredients for an Eritrean Recipe is not so easy when you do not know the names of the ingredients. Take time to make a list of ingredients and the name they may be found under at the Local Markets.


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Preparation Methods for Eritrean Cooking
Eritrean cuisine uses elements from very various cooking traditions barrowed from their neighbors and developed from their own traditional dishes. While there are no specific or unique preparation methods for Eritrean cooking, we should point out that attention to details is important in the Eritrean cuisine. Using the right amount of spices for example is essential- either for spicing up the taste or for coloring the dish. The diversity of the vegetables and cereals found in Eritrea is also noticed in the delicious dishes belonging to their cuisine. The visual attractiveness of the dish is also important, and a balance between colors and proportions differentiates. Each traditional dish has a special cooking method, which is more or less general in all of Eritrean regions. Meat is one of the main elements of most Eritrean dishes and cure and smoked hams are often parts of delicious dishes.

Special Equipment for Eritrean Cooking
Most Eritrean dishes don’t require you to purchase any special tools. However, having a coffee grinder helps with roasting and grinding spices and maximizes their volatile oils, which, in turn, provides your food with more flavor. Ranging from cake pans, can openers, colanders, egg rings, poachers and holders, food dishers and portioners, food pans and food containers to other kitchen utensils, such as food scales, food scoops and fryer baskets and accessories, the Eritrean cuisine needs a diverse cooking equipment set in order to produce the most sophisticated Eritrean dishes. You should consider insulated food carriers if you are transporting the food and a full set of kitchen linens and uniforms if you wish to look like a pro. Here are a few other items that will come handy while cooking Eritrean food: juicers, kitchen knives, kitchen slicers, and kitchen thermometers, measuring cups and measuring spoons, miscellaneous utensils, mixing bowls and skimmers and strainers. Essential utensils like serving spoons, spatulas, forks, turners, scrapers and tongs should also be part of your cooking “arsenal”.

Eritrean Food Traditions and Festivals
There are many traditions and festivals held in Eritrea. The national holiday include The New Year’s Day (January 1st), Leddet or the Christmas Day (January 7th), Eil ad-Adha( January 10th), Timket or Epiphany ( January 19th), Muharram or the Islamic New Year (January 31st), Keren (May 29th), Ramadan ends (October 24th) and Eid al-Adha or the festival of sacrifice( December 31st). People from Eritrea mostly those who belong to the Coptic Orthodox Christians and the Moslems are not allowed by their religion to eat meat for 200 days on the year so they have numerous meals which exclude meat. One of their traditional dishes is hot oat gruel with honey. The main traditional foods in Eritrean cuisine are zigni(meat with chili peppers), hilbet (paste made from vegetables like lentils and faba beans), shiro(pea soup) and of course injera which is generally consummated for every meal; injera is flatbread made from teff, wheat ot sorghum).

People in Eritrean Food
There are many chefs who creatively use the basic ingredients and cooking methods for traditional Eritrean dishes and create original and delicious food variations. Eritrean chefs are passionate about their traditional dishes and they enjoy presenting them to the foreigners who have never tasted them before. Whether they are cooking dishes that go back in time for centuries or brand new, modern dishes, Eritrean chefs take pride in what they do, and this is readily noticeable in the unforgettable taste of their cooking.
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