Awaze

Awaze is Ethiopia's essential table condiment and marinade — a thick, vivid-red paste made primarily from berbere spice blend loosened with liquid. Where berbere is a dry spice mix (or in its paste form, a cooked base), awaze is the ready-to-use fresh condiment form: made to order, served immediately, and used both at the table and as a short marinade for meats. **Composition:** The core is *berbere* — the complex Ethiopian chili-forward spice blend built from sun-dried red chilies, bishop's weed (*nech azmud*, similar to ajwain), korarima (Ethiopian cardamom), coriander, black pepper, rue (*tena adam*), fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon, and often dried onion and garlic. To make awaze, this berbere is loosened with either *tej* (Ethiopian honey wine, mead), dry red wine, or water, then sometimes supplemented with a small amount of niter kibbeh (spiced clarified butter) for richness, garlic, and fresh ginger. The ratio varies by household and intended use: drier for a thick marinade, wetter for a drizzling sauce. **Use at the table:** In Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants and homes, a bowl or ramekin of awaze arrives alongside injera and communal dishes. It is the heat element — diners scoop it onto injera wraps of tibs or kitfo for additional burn. It is not a fermented product in the way iru or a long-macerated paste is, but the berbere itself often contains spices that have been sun-dried and stored, and tej-based versions pick up a mild tang. **As a marinade:** Raw beef for kitfo (Ethiopian steak tartare) is often dressed with a mixture of niter kibbeh and a small amount of awaze before serving. Grilled meats (lega tibs, derek tibs) are sometimes marinated briefly — twenty to sixty minutes — in awaze before hitting the pan or charcoal grill. The paste's acidity from wine or tej helps tenderize surface proteins. **Regional variation:** In Eritrea, an equivalent called *zigni berbere* marinade or simply awaze is used identically. In the Ethiopian diaspora, commercial jarred versions exist (Ziyad, or Ethiopian specialty brands) but homemade is preferred for freshness. The heat level in awaze is calibrated to the household — tourist-facing versions are often milder than family preparations.

“He stirred a teaspoon of tej into the berbere until it became awaze, then scraped it into a small bowl to set alongside the tibs.”

• IngredientBerbere
• IngredientTej (Ethiopian Honey Wine)
• CuisineEthiopian

1. 1.Exotic Ethiopian Cooking — Daniel J. Mesfin (1993)
2. 2.The Ethiopian Cookbook — Rachel Pambrun (2015)
3. 3.Feast: Food of the Islamic World — Anissa Helou (2018)
4. 4.Ethiopia: Recipes and Traditions from the Horn of Africa — Yohanis Gebreyesus (2017)

Confidence: high