Ye'assa T'ibs (Fried Fish)

"Ye'assa T'ibs, Ethiopian style, may also be prepared with whole fish.  Cleaned inside and out with water and lemon and fried the same way coated with flour.  Serve with a wedge of lemon." ~ D. J. Mesfin, Exotic Ethiopian Cooking, p. 156

Ye'assa t'ibs on the right; the rest of the plate consists of iskunfur.

I present to you now an authentic Ethiopian dish that I think almost anyone would eat, except my brother or anyone allergic to fish.  No, not the stuff at the top of the plate (definitely not the stuff at the top of the plate; good luck finding anyone to eat that, save for my 2-year-olds).  The stuff on the right.  Where I grew up, we called that "fish fry" and Ted's was the place to get it.  I know, I know, I forgot the wedge of lemon.  

In Amharic, it's called ye'assa t'ibs.  And if there's anything the (my) Ethiopians like better than berbere, it's seafood.  I come from New England stock and can think of few things better than a lobster bake on a beautiful summer evening.  Chowder, lobster, clams, fish...pass them all, please!  This is one of the great passions shared between myself and the Ethiopians; if I can manage to get any after they've finished eating it, that is.  Despite their being from a landlocked country*, they have yet to meet a fish, a crustacean, or a mollusk that they don't like.  

I was going to be making ye'assa t'ibs anyway, but due to a business trip and Easter, I had gotten a couple of weeks behind, so I decided to make the ye'assa t'ibs in conjunction with something that I knew wasn't going to go over quite as well: the iskunfur.  As it turned out, the ye'assa t'ibs were delicious with the sauce from the iskunfur, even if one didn't partake of the stuffed tripe itself.  

Ye'assa t'ibs is quick and easy to make, and you probably have all of the ingredients at hand: fish, flour, black pepper, salt, and oil!  Nothing exotic and no need to stop by the Asian grocery!  

If you wanted to be most authentic, you could go with tilapia or catfish, species of which are found in the lakes of Ethiopia.  I decided to go with cod, however.  

You start by mixing the flour with the black pepper and the salt:

Then you dredge the fish in the mixture.  I usually like to use a big plastic bag for coating and dredging, but I happen to be all out, so I did it in a bowl.

all dredged and waiting for the frying pan

Heat up the oil and throw the fish in:

And fry until it's nice and golden.  That's it!  See how easy that was?  And it's authentic....or else it wouldn't be in the book!  

I do have to admit that I had to resist the very real temptation to add some tartar sauce.  

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* There are, however, beautiful lakes in Ethiopia that are fished and we even visited a fish market at Lake Awassa when we were there.  Here are some pictures: