ሥጋ ወጥ (Sega Wat)
Sega Wat or ሥጋ ወጥ in amharic, also w'et, wot or tsebhi, is the beef variant of Wat, the Ethiopian national dish. It is traditionally eaten with Injera bread, a pancake-like flat bread, and hard boiled eggs, but it also goes very well with white rice or boiled potatoes.
What makes this stew special is that it is made with traditional pastes and spices such as Berbere (a traditional spice mix) and Niter Kibbeh (a spice infused butter). We've included the recipes for all these additional steps under the main recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef cubbed
- 6 tbs Niter Kibbeh (bought or see the recipe below)
- 3 cups pureed onions
- 1 1/2 tbs minced garlic
- 1 1/2 tbs minced ginger
- 1/4 cup Berbere spices (bought or see the recipe below)
- 1 cup strong beef broth
- 3 hard boiled eggs
Instructions
Add the onions and 3 tbs Niter Kibbeh to your food processor. Put the resulting puree in your stew pot and set it on low heat for 15 minutes. Next, add the ginger and garlic with the rest of the Niter Kibbeh and wait for another 10 minutes. After that, add the Berbere spices and continue to simmer everything for 10 more minutes.
Finally, add the beef broth and the meat, turn up the heat until it boils and lower it again, simmering the meat until it is tender. While the meat cooks, boil the eggs, peel them and put them aside.
When the meat is ready and the Wat is thick enough that it is not runny it is ready to serve. Incorporate the eggs and let them reheat for a couple of minutes in the stew. On top of a large plate place several layers of Injera (flatbread) and in the middle add a generous amount of Wat.
This stew will feed 4 hungry spicy stewlovers.
Injera flatbread
Injera is basically a sourdough teff flour pancake.
- 2 cups teff flour
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 cups lukewarm water
Mix all the ingredients well in a large bowl, place the bowl in a warm place covered with cloth and wait 4 or 5 days, until it smells slightly like yogurt.
Tips:
- You can make "fast injera" if you already have sourdough (recently refreshed) you can cut short and replace 1 cup flour with an equal amount of sourdough.
- Also if you do not have teff flour available you can replace it with wholegrain flour.
Heat up a pan with a little oil and add a very thin layer of the mix, wait until it dries and flip it over.
Niter Kibbeh
- 500gr unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup chopped onions
- 3 tbs minced garlic
- 2 tbs minced ginger
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp whole black pepper corns
- 3 black cardomom pods
- 3 whole cloves
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp dry oregano
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Melt the butter in a pan and add the spices. Simmer them for 45 min and filter the result into a large jar using a cheese cloth.
Berebere
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 4 green cardomom pods
- 5 dry hot peppers
- 3 tbs sweet paprica
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tspcummin seeds
- 1 tsp black pepper corn
- 2 all-spice berries
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp turmeric
Heat up the all the spices (not the powdered spices) in a pan until you can smell them and put them in a grinder.