Recipe: Ethiopian Cabbage and Potatoes From Assimba's Messeret Habeti

credit: flickr.com/photos/jypsygen/

Cabbage is front and center here, though your results may not look quite like this.

This is part three of our conversation with Assimba's Messeret Habeti. To read part one and two, go here and here. Habeti was in the kitchen when I met her, cooking using a great vat of a pan, using what looked like an oar to stir a mass of simmering lentils. She didn't want to give specifics for this recipe, so this one assumes that you know how to cook, and that you'll make your own judgments as to measurements and proportion. Or perhaps that you'll go to her restaurant and order this dish, so you know what you're aiming for.

Messeret's Cabbage and Potatoes
(her very loose recipe)

Cabbage, one head, cut into thick slices
Potatoes, four medium sized, cut into quarters
Carrots, four, sliced into rounds
Olive oil
Onion, chopped
Jalapeno, diced
Ginger, diced
Garlic, diced
Salt, to taste

Simmer chopped onion in olive oil for ten minutes. Add ginger, garlic, and jalapeno. Then add potatoes and carrots, and simmer for 45 minutes. Salt to taste.