Ethiopian Brown chile peppers, botanically classified as Capsicum annuum, are a rare African variety that belongs to the Solanaceae or nightshade family. Also known as the Berbere pepper and the Ethiopian Berbere, Ethiopian Brown chile peppers have a moderate to hot level of spice, ranging 30,000 to 50,000 SHU on the Scoville scale.
These chile peppers are descendants of the original chiles that were first brought to northeastern Africa from Central and South America by Portuguese explorers sometime during the 15th and 16th centuries. Today Ethiopian Brown chile peppers are not commonly found outside of Ethiopia, but some seeds are available for home gardening through global, online sellers.
Characteristics of Ethiopian Brown Peppers
Ethiopian Brown chile peppers are elongated and slender pods, averaging 10 to 15 centimeters in length, and have a conical shape that tapers to a point on the non-stem end. The pods may be slightly curved or straight and have some deep folds and wrinkles, giving the pepper a wrinkled appearance. The skin is glossy and smooth, ripening from green to a dark, chocolate brown-red when mature.
Underneath the tough skin, the flesh is medium-thick, red-orange, and crisp, encasing a central cavity filled with membranes and round and flat, cream-colored seeds. Ethiopian Brown chile peppers are juicy and have a rich, smoky flavor with a tangy fruitiness.
These peppers are said to have a rich, smokey flavor that’s good for making chili powder as well as rubs and BBQ sauces.
Read also: Ethiopian Cuisine: Philadelphia Guide
Nutritional Benefits
Ethiopian Brown chile peppers are an excellent source of vitamin C, a good source of vitamins B6 and A, and contain some iron, copper, and potassium.
Culinary Applications
Ethiopian Brown chile peppers can be used in both raw or cooked applications such as roasting, sautéing, and baking.
- When fresh, the peppers can be chopped and tossed into salads or blended into sauces, marinades, or dips.
- Ethiopian Brown chile peppers can also be sliced and stirred into soups and stews, cooked with roasts, mixed into beans, or lightly stir-fried with vegetables.
- In addition to cooked applications, the peppers can be dried, ground into a powder, and used as a dry rub for grilled meats or blended into barbeque sauces.
Ethiopian Brown chile peppers pair well with chickpeas, sweet corn, avocado, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, oregano, cumin, coriander, turmeric, quinoa, eggs, and meats such as poultry, pork, lamb, or beef.
Berbere: The Heart of Ethiopian Cuisine
Ethiopian Brown chile peppers are most well-known for their use in berbere, which is a traditional spice blend that has been used in Ethiopian cuisine for hundreds of years. Berbere refers both to the dried pepper pods AND the powder.
At the most basic level, berbere is a chili pepper centric spice blend from the Horn of Africa, most commonly associated with Ethiopia and Eritrea. However, it's worth noting that berbere is frequently used in much larger quantities than many spice mixes.
Read also: Authentic Ethiopian Cuisine
Western cooks used to adding a tablespoon or two of a spice mix to a recipe are often surprised to see recipes calling for half a cup (or more!) of berbere. There are recipes that use less berbere of course, but as a general rule this spice blend serves a very important, even foundational role in a lot of Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking. Because of this, it's worth understanding what goes into making really good berbere.
Made with dried and ground Ethiopian Brown chile peppers, fenugreek, salt, pepper, allspice, cardamom, and ginger, the spice blend offers a spicy, earthy flavor used for meats, soups, stews, and lentil dishes.
Each family in Ethiopia has its own creative blend, which is passed down from generation to generation, and this blend is what gives the food a unique, vibrant flavor that is difficult to replicate. No two berbere recipes are the same, so don't feel like you're out of luck if you have to make changes along the way. You can play with the individual spices, changing the balance of flavours and adding or omitting ingredients to suit your personal preferences.
Berbere can be used in its dried, powdered state, or it can be mixed with water into a paste. Both the powder and the paste can be incorporated into a sauce and consumed alongside injera, a traditional spongy flatbread, or it can be mixed with garlic and wine to make a dip known as awaze.
It’s almost the end of October, so that must mean I finally have peppers! And this year has been extremely satisfying in the pepper department. Along with the several sweet peppers that were kind enough to perennial-ize themselves from last year, and our usual ‘Ancho-Poblano’ and ‘Spanish Spice’ varieties, this year we added several new additions to the pepper patch.
Read also: A Taste of Ethiopia in South Carolina
I’m also looking forward to the ‘Ethiopian Brown Berbere’ peppers. I plan to start drying them in the next few days to make the Ethiopian spice paste called “Berbere” for a nut and seed mix recipe that I like. Since the plant has been prolific, I plan to harvest some of the peppers brown and dry them now, then if the rest ripen to red, I will dry those and we’ll be able to compare the flavor.
Berbere seasoning is awesomely hot and spicy North African-style hot pepper blend. Also known as peri peri or bere bere. No salt, no mild paprika, just a lot of Cayenne Red Pepper with the rich flavors of fenugreek and cardamom. It's not just hot, it's peri peri hot.
Berbere (an Ethiopian spice blend) is typically used in wat - stew. There are numerous stews in Ethiopia, both vegetarian and not; much of Ethiopian cuisine consists of stews. Stews of red or yellow lentils, or chickpeas, or lamb, or chicken on the bone or beef are very common.
In fact, if you go to any Ethiopian restaurant and then go to another, and then another, you will find virtually identical menus. For the hot food, the stews noted plus stewed collards and other cooked vegetables; possibly a cold vegetable or two; house made cheese; a raw minced beef dish called kifto.
Long, slender brown cayenne chiles with medium heat from the Mareko region of Ethiopia. This variety is a genetically diverse population with occasional red peppers, though seeds are only saved from the brown ones.
Menkir Tamrat is an Ethiopian tech-worker turned farmer who introduced these seeds and other Ethiopian varieties to Fred Hempel, who shared this variety with us, and who runs Artisan Seeds in Sunol, CA,.
Menkir adds: "It's believed the original ancestors of Mareko peppers came to Ethiopia at the dawn of the seventeenth century from Goa, India, courtesy of Jesuit missionaries (mostly Portuguese and Spanish) who were in Ethiopia trying to convert the country to Catholicism and to find out about the fables of Prestor John".
Start seeds indoors 8-10 weeks before the last frost and transplant into the garden well after the danger of frost. Keep seedlings moist but do not overwater.
Pepper seeds are ripe when the fruits have turned their final fiery color - in this case, sunset-orange. Cut the fruit, scrape out seeds, and lay them out to dry on a labeled screen or paper product in a ventilated place away from direct sunlight for a week or two.
Generally speaking, berbere should be noticeably spicy, but not so hot that you struggle to get through a recipe that uses a lot of it (e.g. doro wot). It's worth remembering that you're often going to end up using quite a lot of berbere in a recipe, so trying to amp up the spice level (e.g.
Now, what if you want to make Ethiopian food, but you've got a low tolerance for spiciness? There isn't one right way to make berbere.
Once you've made berbere, there are a number of ways you can use it. It can be used as a rub, added to a marinade, combined with other ingredients (e.g. approx.
James, it might be helpful to know the ingredients of your Berbere rub.
It would probably be good mixed into the cooking liquids for coconut rice. Mix it into a marinade for grilled chicken breasts.
Possibly substitute the Berbere Seasoning for the za'atar.
Baharat is a spice blend used in many Arab cuisines. It is also used in stews (superb with eggplant) and can be found in marinades as well.
It is often mixed with minced or ground meat that is cooked (often with onion) and served with or atop couscous, or mixed with ground meat (often lamb) as a filling for pies.
There are several important species of peppers, so check your scientific names!
