HI.Curryqueen
i agree with you about the oil.
you know a lot of Indians immigrated to different parts of the world ,there are a lot of them used to and still living in Ethiopia.
They influenced the cuisine of this country a lot.
please see the following spiced oil or butter that ETHIOPIAN use in every kind of their cooking ,they call it NETTER KEPPEHA
500 ml oil or butter
one small onion +3 cloves garlic +1 inch ginger .......minced until fine in a kitchen machine .
half a teaspoon turmeric or still better saffron
10 whole cardmoms
2 whole black cardmoms
10 whole cloves
5 inch cinnamon stick ( no cassia park please )
dry red chillies to your liking
2 tea spoons whole coriander
2tea spoon whole black onion seeds
2 tea spoons fennel seeds
2teaspoons fenugreek seeds
pinch of whole mace
1 tea spoon ajawan seeds
few bay leaves
1 tea spoon royal cumin seed ( black cumin
1 tea spoon black pepper corns
Bring all the above ingredients to the boil, then lower the heat to the lowest setting and leave there for at least1 hour .
leave to cool and the next morning stain the oil, and smell it ,it is out of this world.
it is even better if you use butter because during the procedure it is going to be clarified ,so you are going to get spiced ghee.
the colour of this oil or butter is between red and orange, it depends upon how many red chillies you are going to use and how many tea spoons of turmeric you are going to use .
i forget to say using it as you use any kind of oil in cooking .
i hope i helped
thanks
ghanna