Quanta firfir served on a fresh injera. This is a typical breakfast meal in Ethiopia that cures hangovers.

We already gave you some tips and tricks to get rid of your hangover. But every country has its own traditional dishes to make the process go faster. We like to give you a taste of the international anti-hangover cuisine. In this article we take a look at the country where coffee, for many people THE hangover cure, originates from: Ethiopia. Their most  popular hangover food is a stew called quanta firfir. 

As said Ethiopia is the country of coffee, but also that of spicy stews. In the Western World therefor Ethiopian restaurants are a popular destination to freshen up after a rough night. Still you won’t usually find quanta firfir on the menu in these places. That’s because it’s stew made with leftover injera, the Ethiopian flat spongey bread. Much the same as there are many European recipes to  give old and dry slices of bread a new tasty purpose.
But let’s not haste ourselves. Let’s first talk a bit about the Ethiopian drinking culture. It’s one that can be compared to the Spanish, Italian or Greek, which means everyone loves a drink but they rarely get drunk. Ethiopia does have some good stuff to offer though. Besides the local commercial beer brands St. George, Harar and Castel, there’s a typical Ethiopian beer called tella, which is made from several different grains. Ethiopia also produces good wines, both white and red.
And then there’s a nice drink called tej, which (thank God) is not tea but a honey wine. Because every region has it’s own flowers, the taste is always a little different. The Ethiopian hard drink is distilled out of grain and called kaitaka. So plenty to choose from and plenty of good reasons to want some solid hangover food in the morning.
Now before we start cooking we must say that all products should be available in an African store, but if you don’t have one nearby, we included links to prepare things like injera (this can take up to 3 days) and berbere spice mix yourself.

Ingredients:
60 ml vegetable oil
2 onions (chopped)
6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
60 gr berbere spice
250 ml water
80 gr tomato paste
2 tomatoes (chopped)
150 dried beef or beef jerky (in 1 cm pieces)
4 fully dried injeras (in bite-size pieces)
2 green spicy peppers (large pieces, no seeds)
Salt
More (fresh) injera for serving

Preparation:
For this dish you need dry injeras. So start with hanging/laying 4 of them until they are completely dried out. When that’s done, take a saucepan, heat it up over medium heat and throw in the onion. Wait about  5 minutes before you add the oil. Now wait a few minutes more before you add half of your garlic and wait yet another few minutes.
Now add the berbere spices and wait for the mixture to stick. When this happens, put in half the water. Stir for a few minutes till it thickens. Then add the rest of the water and garlic, along with the tomato paste, tomatoes and salt to taste. Wait for the tomatoes to fall apart to add the beef and 1 minute later the injera.
Stir gently and wait for the injera to absorb all the liquid. Now top off the dish with the green pepper and you are ready to go. Be sure to eat your quanta firfir with your hands and some fresh injera.

Micky Bumbar

Check out more tasty hangover cures from around the world