Destination
Addis Ababa
The story
Duba quanta is one of Ethiopia's autumn-and-winter stews: cubes of orange pumpkin (duba) simmered slowly with pieces of quanta (Ethiopian air-dried spiced beef) in a broth of niter kibbeh, onion, garlic, berbere and a splash of tej or red wine. The dried beef rehydrates as it braises, releasing its cured-meat depth into the sauce; the pumpkin breaks down slightly at the edges into the broth. Served with injera or rice, especially for family gatherings and holiday tables.
Method
Melt the niter kibbeh in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook slowly for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often, until soft, deep golden and sweet.
Add the garlic and ginger. Cook 1 minute. Add the berbere and cardamom, stir for 30 seconds until fragrant and the fat turns deep red-orange.
Pour in the red wine (or tej). Simmer 2 minutes to cook off the alcohol and scrape up any browned bits.
Pour in the stock. Add the quanta (or biltong/bresaola). Simmer 20 minutes so the dried beef rehydrates and releases its flavour.
Add the pumpkin chunks and season with a small pinch of salt and pepper (go easy on the salt; the dried beef will contribute plenty). Simmer another 25 to 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is fork-tender and starting to break down at the edges into the sauce.
Taste the sauce. Add more salt if needed. The finished stew should be thick, rich and deeply spiced, with the pumpkin holding its shape and the beef pieces tender and infused.
Scatter with coriander or parsley. Serve on a large communal platter with injera (torn into pieces for scooping) or over rice.
Tips
- Biltong or bresaola are the honest substitutes for quanta. Both are air-cured beef; both work well. Sliced thick (5mm) and cut into 3cm pieces before adding to the pot.
- Niter kibbeh is essential. Regular butter works, but the smoky, spiced Ethiopian clarified butter with cardamom, fenugreek and koseret is what makes the dish specifically Ethiopian. Sold at Ethiopian grocers, or make it at home from a recipe.
- Cook the onions slowly. Twelve to fifteen minutes over medium heat is what turns the onions into the sweet, deep-golden base that carries the whole stew. Rushed onions give you a thinner, less integrated sauce.
- Go easy on the salt at first. Dried beef contributes a lot of salt to the finished dish. Taste before adding more. Over-salted duba quanta is a common home-cook mistake.
- Better on day two. Like most Ethiopian stews, duba quanta improves overnight as the flavours deepen and the pumpkin absorbs more of the broth. Make on Saturday for Sunday lunch.
More recipes
View all
Very finely chopped raw beef seasoned with mitmita and warmed briefly in niter kibbeh. Ethiopia's Gurage-invented national dish, served with ayib and gomen.
Berbere blended with tej or red wine and a splash of oil into a fiery, glossy red paste. Ethiopia's essential condiment, on every table.
Torn flatbread pan-fried in niter kibbeh and berbere until glossy and spiced. Ethiopia's Oromo breakfast, sold from morning cafés across Addis Ababa.
Spaghetti tossed with berbere-spiced tomato sauce, awaze and a spoon of niter kibbeh. Ethiopia's café pasta, born of the Italian occupation and made unmistakably Addis.
Stewed fava beans mashed hot with tomato, chilli, egg and a slick of niter kibbeh, spooned onto bread. Ethiopia's café breakfast, half-Sudanese, half-Habesha.
Roasted barley, chickpeas, peanuts and sunflower seeds tossed with a little salt. Ethiopia's coffee-ceremony snack, portable, endlessly refillable.