From my reading, I have learned that one of the staples of Ethiopian cooking is a hot spice mix called Berbere. It’s easy to make and promises to add excitement my  to meals in the coming months. Try it!

Ingredients:

Group 1:

• 2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 4 whole cloves
• 3/4 tsp. cardamom seeds
• 1/2 tsp. whole black peppercorns
• 1/4 tsp/ whole allspice
• 1 tsp. fenugreek
• 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds

Group 2:

• approximately 1/5 cp. dried red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp. finely minced fresh ginger root

Group 3:

• 1/4 tsp. turmeric
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 tsp. sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
  

  Group 3, minus the ginger, which didn't make it into the photo somehow

Here are the steps:

1. Heat all the spices from Group 1 in a frying pan on medium heat for about 2 minutes. They will produce a wonderful smell. Stir constantly to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for five minutes.
2. Crush the spices from Group 2 (minced ginger and red pepper flakes) with a mortar and pestle, or in a spice grinder. Add in the cooled, toasted spices from Group 1. Grind everything finely.
3. Mix the spices from Group 3 with the preceding ingredients. Transfer to a storage container and keep in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to 1 month.

Add it in any recipe that uses a hot spice. Add it to vegetables, beans and lentils, soups and stews…Enjoy!

*This is an adapted recipe from the cookbook, Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant. It replaces some of the traditional ingredients with spices readily available in the United States. If you can find ajwain and rue berries,  which are usually included, try them out. I’m on the lookout for them myself.

Keep it in the refrigerator!

Athens, Greece, January 2011

It can be easy to fall out of the habit of posting. One week becomes two and then it’s been months!

But I’m back and have some interesting things planned! Here are the coming attractions to be on the lookout for: a recipe for Ethiopian berbere hot spice powder, instructions for conditioning your hair naturally with cassia, a how-to on making botanical bath bombs, galaxy nail art, some new free Sudanese henna designs, and an experiment with using dry pomegranate powder to intensify henna stain…See you soon!

New botanical find! The porcelainberry plant, with its pink, lavender, turquoise, and blue berries, looks like something out of a fairy tale. It is however real, and is considered an invasive species. Fall is the season to see its colorful berries. Keep an eye out for it in clearings and on roadside areas...

Photo of pokeberries...from a stock photo website...

Have you ever seen a pokeberry and wondered what you could do with it? I know I certainly have. Pokeweed is  a common weed, growing on roadsides, along the edges of fields, and in other areas of disturbed soil. It is easily recognized recognized as the plant reaches the end of summer, with its  magenta streaked stalks and dark black clusters of berries.

Pokeberries have the distinction of being not only a traditional herbal remedy for rheumatism  and a foraged, wild food, but also of being highly toxic. The plant starts with a low concentration of toxins in the spring, when it was typically picked to use as a vegetable. Leaves or stalks would have to be boiled in several changes of water to remove residual toxins before being eaten. As the plant matures, the level of toxins grows in the plant. The seeds contained in the berries are highly toxic. The root is the most poisonous part of the plant. Here is a link to a study on the toxicity of pokeberries.

Here is my disclaimer: This process centers on a poisonous plant. Wear gloves and use caution if doing this in a home with children or animals. Keep the ink well-sealed, not just to prevent anyone from ingesting it…but also to keep it from spilling and staining things…Onward:

Pokeberries,with their bright magenta juice,  seem promising as a source of dye, but accounts I read about that dissuaded me from trying it. The dye doesn’t seem very practical for fabric dyeing since it is neither lightfast nor washfast. Of course, opinions varied, but the general consensus was that it’s not a fast dye.

I had, however read about the use of pokeberry to make an ink, which was popular in the American colonies and can be seen in examples of letters from that time period. There are numerous theories that are being floated around on the internet about how exactly to formulate this ink.

Without delving into historical documents, I picked a method that involved fermentation. Some information about un-fermented inks mentioned that they had a tendency to go bad or mold…So, off I went to buy my packet of yeast, and forage for  pokeberries on the side of the road near the bus stop.

Here is what you need to make pokeberry ink:

• pokeberries
• yeast
• a lidded container, with an opening, that you can ferment poisonous berries in
• a thin cloth for straining the ink
• a container to store the ink in

STEP 1) Bring the pokeberries home and put them in your fermentation container. The container needs to have a lid, so that it doesn’t attract fruit flies, but it needs a small opening so that there is some air flow. I found what I believe to be the perfect container for this: a large plastic iced coffee cup with a slit in the plastic lid for a straw. You get containment and air flow, without needing to slice holes into other plastic containers and dull your knives.

Some of the pokeberries in the cup before I removed them from the stalk

STEP 2) Cover the air hole and vigorously shake the container. This will mash the berries without creating the mess of using a spoon to crush them. The mashing will release the juices.

STEP 3) Let the juice sit overnight.

STEP 4) The next day, add some yeast, mixing well. I had about a pint of berries and used half a packet of yeast. Experiment.

STEP 5) Wait a few days. The ink will ferment and you will notice the color change from a reddish-tone magenta to a cool-tone purple.

Straining the berry pulp out of the fermented ink

STEP 6) Strain the berry pulp out of the ink. Put your ink in a storage container. Play with it!

The difference in the color of the fresh juice and the fermented ink can be seen below. The fresh juice was more red-magenta color. The finished ink is a more cool-tone purple color. I think it is beautiful. If you want to read more about making pokeberry ink, here is a webforum for people who use fountain pens discussing homemade inks, and here is discussion of the fermentation method of making the ink.

Here are the before and after photos of the raw juice and fermented ink:

Fresh Juice

Omani style palm henna design, July

Loose Bahraini style hand design

Bahrain style henna with bold flower, July

floral hand henna design

Bahrain style foot henna for Kathryn, August

Coffee is delicious, Athens, Greece, January 2011

“The other woman appeared with a tin bowl full of qishr. All around, on large metal trays, coffee beans lay in the sun. I remembered The Dispute Between Coffee and Qat, a literary contest composed in the middle of the last century in which each  tree vies with the other in praising itself and belittling its opponent. The coffee tree says: ‘When my berries appear, their green is like the ringstones of emerald or turquoise. Their color as they ripen is the yellow of golden amber necklaces. And when they are fully ripe, they are as red as rare carnelian, or ruby coral.’ The nearest jar of Nescafe was far away.”

–from Yemen, the Unknown Arabia by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

n.b. qishr is a drink, popular in Yemen,  made from the husks of coffee beans

More Tips!!

• Wrap scotch tape around your fingernails before dipping. This seriously decreases the amount of time spent removing excess nail polish later.
• If you use a white base coat, your colors will be much brighter. If you use a medium or dark color, the results will be more subdued.
• Once you have laid your nail down on the nail polish film on top of the water, rather than pulling your finger away, put your finger under the water for about 30 seconds. Let the nail polish dry on the water. With your finger still underwater, scoop out the hardened nail polish from the surface with a toothpick. When the water is clear, remove your finger from the water.
• Finally, if you want to find videos on Youtube, search for “water marble.” That seems to be the widely-used name for this technique. I will continue to say “nail marbelization” though, because I think it sounds more fun…

Thanks to Rachel Brown and Chinatsu Kobayashi for letting me include your photos in this post!