Ful is one of the most popular breakfast dishes in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East—and every country has their own version. Today Chef Eden Gebre Egziabher joins Epicurious to prepare her's.
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00:00 Foul is one of the most popular breakfast dishes
00:03 in the whole of North Africa and Middle East.
00:05 And what makes Ethiopian and Eritrean foul
00:08 very different and unique
00:10 is the special spice blend called berbere.
00:14 Foul is widely known both in North Africa, Middle East,
00:17 and it goes on to the Mediterranean, including Greece.
00:20 Every country has their own version.
00:23 The one that I'm gonna be making is the original foul,
00:26 which comes from Ethiopia.
00:29 I'm Chef Aden Gobregziab here,
00:31 born in Ethiopia from Eritrea heritage.
00:35 And today I'll be making
00:37 traditional Ethiopian-Eritrean foul breakfast.
00:41 (upbeat music)
00:44 Foul is a fava bean stew simmered down with onions,
00:51 a little bit of spice, jalapeno, and garlic.
00:54 And then we have our different types of topping
00:57 with berbere.
00:59 Onion is such a big part of Ethiopian-Eritrean cuisine.
01:03 We love onion.
01:04 I don't think we have a dish that onion is not included.
01:07 The full dish is no different.
01:09 So we're gonna add a good amount of onion,
01:12 both for the topping,
01:14 as well as to simmer down the fava beans.
01:17 We're gonna do garlic.
01:18 You just smash it, add a little bit of salt,
01:22 and then you chop it finely.
01:23 My mother, grandparents,
01:25 almost everyone that I know would do it like this.
01:27 Jalapeno is traditionally found
01:30 in Ethiopian-Eritrean foul.
01:32 Other cultures would add their own choice of spice
01:36 mixed in with garlic.
01:38 All right, so we're ready to layer up the flavors
01:42 and cook the fava beans.
01:43 A little bit of olive oil,
01:46 and we're gonna add in our onions.
01:48 It doesn't have to sweat.
01:50 Add our garlic paste.
01:54 I know that most of the time
01:55 you may not be able to find fresh fava beans
01:58 that's readily available.
01:59 It's very seasonal.
02:00 Using canned fava beans is actually not skimping
02:03 on the authenticity in regards to flavor
02:06 and everything else is fairly similar.
02:09 We're gonna add jalapeno.
02:10 We're gonna add in our cumin.
02:12 Cumin is great for any type of stew,
02:16 especially when it comes to fava beans.
02:18 It needs a lot of flavoring.
02:20 Fava beans may not be a very popular bean
02:23 on the American side,
02:25 but it's a very ancient legume consumed for centuries.
02:28 It dates back all the way to fourth century.
02:32 People have used it as a great source of protein, iron,
02:36 which makes it great for breakfast.
02:38 Put a good amount of salt.
02:40 It has been cooking for a little bit.
02:43 We're gonna mash the beans.
02:45 You don't necessarily want it to be like similar
02:47 to a mashed potato.
02:48 You don't wanna completely mash it.
02:50 This breakfast is very nostalgic.
02:52 This is something that I grew up eating
02:55 every single Saturday.
02:57 I'm gonna just take a small bite
02:59 just to see if it has enough seasoning.
03:02 Oh, this is perfect.
03:05 Now that we have cooked our food,
03:10 there are different toppings that go on full
03:13 to bring the whole meal together,
03:15 and one of them is the berbere spice.
03:18 When you're talking about Ethiopian and Eritrean food,
03:22 the most distinctive flavor that we have
03:24 is the spice blend.
03:26 It's very versatile.
03:27 Anywhere from stews to stir fries to condiments,
03:31 you can use it cooked or uncooked.
03:34 There are two components to it.
03:36 One is your ground spices.
03:38 We have rosemary, garlic, onion, and ginger,
03:43 and on the other side, you have your warm spices.
03:47 The Ethiopian cardamom is an absolute must.
03:50 Another name for it is false cardamom.
03:52 Basobela, which is sacred basil.
03:55 We have kosaret, black cumin, coriander,
03:58 white cumin, black peppercorn, and fenugreek.
04:02 And lastly, but the most important, is the Kashmiri chili.
04:07 If you don't have access to that,
04:08 you would wanna pick a milder chili.
04:10 Typically, an Ethiopian Eritrean chef
04:14 wouldn't use such a small grinder.
04:17 Since this is such a big staple spice blend,
04:20 it's usually made in big batches,
04:23 enough to last you anywhere from six months to a year.
04:27 And so, after you sun-dry every single ingredient
04:30 that you have here, you actually take it to a special place
04:34 that they can grind every product that you have
04:37 and make sure that it is at its perfect quality.
04:41 I'm gonna toast my cardamom.
04:44 Coriander goes in there.
04:46 A little bit of white cumin, fenugreek, black cumin.
04:51 We're gonna toast this for a couple of minutes.
04:54 Toasting it actually wakes up the flavor,
04:57 especially with the cardamom.
05:00 It just really transform it.
05:01 So Ethiopian cardamom is fairly similar
05:05 to other types of cardamom,
05:07 but what makes it very distinct
05:09 is how concentrated and potent it is.
05:12 You don't need a lot of it.
05:13 All you need is a very small amount of it.
05:16 Oh, I smell the cardamom.
05:17 It smells really, really distinctive and powerful.
05:21 I'm gonna add the basobila,
05:23 the kosaret, black peppercorn, a small amount of salt,
05:29 the rest of my spices.
05:32 Berbere is an extremely important part
05:36 of Ethiopian Eritrean cooking.
05:38 Every single person and family member
05:40 have their own version of this berbere spice,
05:43 and so I actually take pride and joy
05:46 in saying that this is a berbere
05:48 that's prepared from my family.
05:50 We are finally ready to plate our ful.
05:55 You're gonna start with your fava beans, your ful.
05:59 The tomato is gonna give you that softness,
06:02 liquidy, in a way, wet texture.
06:05 And then jalapeno and bell pepper.
06:08 I like the texture of bell pepper.
06:11 The onion is gonna give you that sharp crunchiness.
06:14 Parsley is something that I've added
06:16 which gives it a nice garnish.
06:18 I have my hard-boiled egg.
06:20 Usually, Ethiopians and Eritreans,
06:23 they might either choose hard-boiled eggs or scrambled eggs.
06:27 It's kind of up to your preference.
06:29 And it goes with yogurt
06:31 because we're gonna be sprinkling the berbere spice.
06:34 As you're eating this in the morning,
06:36 for those that want that spice, they can have that,
06:38 but also cool you down with this yogurt.
06:41 And finally, it is our berbere spice.
06:46 Gonna add a drizzle of olive oil.
06:48 This plate loves olive oil.
06:50 You can dig in with a spoon.
06:53 Usually, it's served with some sort of flat bread.
06:56 I'm gonna use this flaky, beautiful fatira bread
07:00 that is also native to Ethiopia.
07:03 It looks flaky and somewhat similar to croissant,
07:08 but it doesn't have the amount of butter that croissant has.
07:12 I'm just gonna dig in with my hand.
07:14 The fava is so creamy.
07:18 It's not dry at all.
07:19 I taste the crunch of the jalapeno.
07:22 The yogurt is giving a nice cut
07:25 from that spice that I taste from the jalapeno.
07:28 You can serve it up to three or four
07:30 and you can eat it together.
07:32 A lot of Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine is very communal,
07:37 which is perfect because each person
07:39 can kind of customize to their liking.
07:42 It's not an overwhelming spicy dish.
07:44 Super packed with protein, flavorful, great breakfast.
07:48 [music]