Citizens, Ethiopian cuisine is known for its vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes. One of the easiest uses of berbere is to make awaze, a citrusy and tangy red chili dip with a little spice. This delicious spicy sauce is a favorite complement to it!
Ethiopian cuisine (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ምግብ) characteristically consists of vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes. This is usually in the form of wat (also w’et or wot), a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour. Ethiopians eat exclusively with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes.
What is Awaze?
Awaze is a traditional Ethiopian sauce or spice paste, made from berbere, mitmita and t'edj (mead). Awaze is a sauce that brings together four typical Ethiopian staples; berbere, mitmita, t’edj and niter kibbeh. Traditionally, awaze is made for special occasions like weddings and served with raw meat (many consider gored gored - cubed raw meat with dipping sauce - an unofficial national dish in Ethiopia that no celebration is complete without.)
The variety of awaze I prefer is called “deleh” and only has 3 ingredients: the Ethiopian berbere spice mix, Ethiopian honey wine known as “t’ej” and oil. You will LOVE this delicious and exotic condiment!
Key Ingredients Explained
- Berbere: Berbere spice is more readily available. It is not nearly as spicy as the mitmita, and is comparable to a New Mexican chili powder in heat (but not the flavor profile). It is a lot like hot paprika in a sense as well. Two weeks ago, I wrote about how to make berbere, an Ethiopian spice mix that’s used nearly every day in our traditional home cooking.
- Mitmita: Mitmita spice is a blend of ground bird peppers or piri piri and a couple of other aromatics. If you want to sub, you can use the piri piri, ground dried Thai bird chilies or something like ground chiltepin peppers. Mitmita is often used to season kefto, a dish of raw meat. Mitmita is particularly hot because it contains pili-pili peppers, one of the hottest peppers on the Scoville scale, which ranks chilli peppers from the least hot to the most formidable.
- T’edj: T’edj, a local version of mead, a drink made from fermented honey to which the leaves and buds of a local plant, gesho (aka “shiny-leaf buckthorn”), are added. I used a European type mead in mine that my husband made at home- it is missing one component of herb from the Ethiopian type but since that is not available to me, it is pretty moot. If you can get that type of mead, by all means use it. T’edj is sometimes replaced in the making of awaze by other spirits such as beer, wine, or aniseed drinks, such as arak.
How to Prepare Awaze
The preparation of this chilli sauce is simple. Once the elements are combined in a mortar, they are worked together until a smooth paste is obtained. The final flavor of the awaze should be a good balance of spiciness, sweetness and bitterness.
Read also: Ethiopian Cuisine: Philadelphia Guide
If you like spicy food this is fantastic- and not nearly as hot overall in the paste as the mitmita by itself so don’t be too worried.
Awaze Recipe
Like many Ethiopian sauces, different households and restaurants use slightly different ingredients and proportions based on their preferences. The recipe I’m excited to share today helps prove this point!
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup berbere
- ½ tablespoon ground black cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons red wine
- 3 tablespoons warm water
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients until you get a smooth consistency.
Yield: about ½ cup of Ethiopian chili dip
Tip: A more traditional awaze recipe will use tej (honey wine) as the alcoholic liquid or areka (a strong alcoholic drink similar to gin). I only make awaze with red wine, but you could also try white wine or one of these other stronger substitutes.
Read also: Authentic Ethiopian Cuisine
Note: Store your awaze chili dip in the refrigerator for up to one week.
ምርጥ የአዋዜ አሰራር/How to make Awaze /Ethiopian Food Recipe
How to Use Awaze
Personally, I don’t care for raw meat, but there are many other delicious ways to bring this traditional sauce into your cooking. On its own, you can use awaze as a dip for your favorite fresh vegetables or as a flavor boost to a sandwich or wrap similar to how you might add hot sauce. You can also substitute awaze for berbere in stews and stir fries (or drizzle over the top after cooking). For example, if you like the beef tibs recipe from last week, try using awaze instead of the plain berbere. This substitution is quite common and the dish is so popular in restaurants that the dish has claimed its own name: Awaze tibs. The extra ingredients in the awaze will elevate the richness and flavor of whatever stew or stir fry you add it to.
Awaze Tibs Recipe
Awaze Tibs is a spicy and boldly flavored Ethiopian dish featuring meat (in this case beef) quickly cooked with a delicious Berbere seasoned sauce. Somewhere between a stir-fry and a stew, it’s a can’t miss meal for adventurous palates. Tibs refers to the cooking method, specifically sautéing small pieces of meat with vegetables. Awaze refers to the spicy sauce, where berbere seasoning is the primary flavor component.
Today I am making beef tibs. Try it with other meats as well, they are all equally good.
Ingredients:
- Beef: You want a fast cooking cut here. New York strip and sirloin are good alternative cuts for this recipe. It is also great with lamb or goat. Use your favorite cut of beef or lamb.
- Berbere: This is where the flavor comes from! It’s a bold and complex spice blend that is essential to Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. We make our own Berbere Seasoning, but you can use store bought or order online.
- Niter Kibbeh: This is a seasoned clarified butter. When I first started cooking Ethiopian food, I just ordered it online. Now I make my own Niter Kibbeh. Niter kibbeh (aka niter qibe or tesmi) is a seasoned clarified butter used extensively in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. Niter kibbeh is a seasoned clarified butter (ghee) spiced with ingredients such as onion, garlic, paprika, fenugreek, ginger, cumin, thyme, oregano, cardamom, turmeric. There is no perfect substitute, but if needed, you can use ghee with an extra teaspoon of berbere spice instead.
- Vegetables: Onion, chilies, ginger, garlic, tomato.
Instructions:
- In a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for Awaze sauce and set it aside.
- Season beef slices with salt.
- Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet or wide pan over high heat and sauté beef for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook the meat in batches if your pan isn’t big enough. If it’s too crowded the meat will steam rather than sear. Let the skillet pre-heat properly and get nice and hot.
- Add in sliced onion and garlic and sauté for 4-5 minutes, or until onion starts to soften.
- Add in sliced tomatoes and Awaze sauce. Mix well with the beef.
- Add in 2 Tbsp water along with jalapeño and rosemary and cook for 2-3 minutes. The tomatoes should just start to wilt without disintegrating much.
- Taste and adjust salt if needed. Stir in niter kebbeh or ghee.
- Serve immediately with injera bread or rice.
Serving Suggestions
Ethiopian awaze tibs is traditionally served with injera, a spongy, sourdough-like flatbread made from teff flour. It is a staple of Ethiopian cooking. The traditional way to serve Awaze Tibs is with injera, a spongy and slightly sour flatbread. It requires several days of fermentation and can be difficult to make. You'll use the injera as a utensil to scoop up the meat to eat. Oftentimes we enjoy our Tibs simply with rice, basmati being the top choice.
Read also: A Taste of Ethiopia in South Carolina
Tips and Variations
- If you’re heat sensitive, start with 1.5 tablespoons of berbere and omit the jalapeno. Give your tibs a taste, and if you can handle more heat just mix more of the berbere with a little water before adding to the dish.
- Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Reheat on stovetop or in the microwave.
- Likewise, Awaze Tibs can be frozen for up to two months, also in a sealed container.
Nutritional Information
| Nutrient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Calories | Approx. 350 |
| Protein | 30g |
| Fat | 20g |
| Carbohydrates | 10g |
Note: Nutritional information is approximate and can vary based on specific ingredients and portion sizes.
Don’t wait, get these exotic flavors going in your kitchen today (or at least as soon as the Berbere delivers). If you cook this recipe, please leave a star rating and comment, we love to hear from you. I love hearing how you like it and how you made it your own.
