As it is home to various nations and nationalities, Ethiopia has a diverse culture of traditional cuisines. Depending on the culture, geography, climate and several other factors, the peoples of Ethiopia have their own distinct way of preparing cuisines. The Silte people, who are found in Southern, Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) state, prepare their traditional food from enset. Enset looks like a banana plant with a character of a root vegetable.
Being technical cousin of the banana, the enset is called false banana in English because of the similarity in appearance. It’s vaguely banana like pods are short, thick, and filled with seeds, but it’s not the fruit that makes enset worth planting. Unlike plucking bananas, harvesting from the enset requires prying the entire plant from the ground.
Its pseudo-stem contains starchy pith that can be pulped and fermented into a calorie-dense carbohydrate. This can be acquired throughout the year, which provides a buffer against famine when seasonal crops fail. Mush Kemal is a resident of Azernet Berbere, one of the Woredas of Silte Zone. She said the Silte people prepare various kinds of traditional food including Kocho, Amcho, Micho, Bulla, Atekana, Bueklla, and others from enset.
Kocho is a traditional flatbread and usually served with the meat dish called “kitfo,” and a cabbage. Kitfo, which is prepared from meat is not consumed on a regular basis, but usually eaten when an animal is sacrificed during a ritual or ceremonial event, like Arefa, Mawlid, Remedan, and others, she noted. The preparation of ‘Kocho’ is a long process.
The green leaf sheaths of enset are scraped with a bamboo scraper. The scrapings are then put in a pit in the ground, lined with enset leaves, along with some yeast mixed into the scrapings. The pit is then covered with enset leaves, and rocks. It is allowed to ferment for at least a month; generally much longer up to two years is not common. The pit might be opened up once and twice, and the contents stirred. The longer it ferments, the better the taste.
The scrapings are green before fermentation in the ground; afterward, they turn white and have a smell like cheese. As part of the Silte zone, a normal Azernet Berbere diet consists primarily of ‘Kocho’. To make kocho from fermented enset, the amount needed is taken out of the pit and chopped for a few minutes with a large knife blade to make sure any fibers remaining are chopped up.
The “dough” is then mixed with spices and butter, and formed into flatbreads and baked in clay pans, on a griddle, or in an open pit. Served with milk, cheese, cabbage, Kitfo, coffee and this versatile carbohydrate adds bulk to meals. Kocho is sticky unless toasted, in which case it takes on a crispy, cracker-like quality. Abato Muzeyin is also dweller in Azernet Berbere. She added that enset’s ubiquity and utility make it a commodity.
Fermented kocho may be used for bread, sale, or trade to buy other things and enset pits are overseen by the women of the household and regarded as assets. The by-product of the pseudo-stem pulping process also has value. This collection of tough fibers gets turned into ropes, mats, and sacks, she said. Atekan is a big dish next to Kocho. And it is prepared for special occasions or when a member of the royalty or a guest comes. It is prepared with Bulla supplemented by Cheese, butter and other important spice, Mush added.
Furthermore, Buekla is prepared from Atekana, yogurt, and Bulla. This traditional dish is delicious and most of the time, it is prepared in the session of Muslims’ holiday like Arefa, Mewled, and others, she noted. In addition, the Silte Zone traditional beverage is Shameta which is prepared from sorghum.
Various researches show that domesticated enset is almost unknown outside of Ethiopia, but it provides a staple crop for roughly 15 million people just within the country’s southwestern region. Historically, enset developed a polarizing connotation as “peasant fare,” and urban-dwelling Ethiopians have been apprehensive about a staple that was once reserved for the impoverished. But while it may not be trendy, inset is remarkable, allowing people to make bread, rope, plates, and even furniture. And the enset might not provide bananas, but it provides just about everything else.
The Ethiopian Herald April 25/2019
BY ESSEYE MENGISTE
