main dish

For her main dish, finalist Stephanie Izard made a lamb course with mushrooms, pistachios and a blackberry and olive tapenade; I remember being utterly fascinated by the combination of colors and flavors.

For our main dish, we shared a combination plate with stews and vegetables, including all my favorites, like doro wat, a Berber spiced chicken served with an egg, quosta, stewed spinach with garlic and onion, and yemisir wat, red lentils cooked in the same Berber sauce as doro wat.

When we splurge on a meal out, we tend to share a main dish and a salad.

That’s the beginnings of an amazingly delicious, yet simple, main dish included in the new “Catan: The Official Cookbook.”

“My 20s were all about the elaborate daawat. Now, in my 30s, I do what’s convenient and mark the occasion in ways that work for me: one main dish fit for a special occasion, something sweet, friends — all the elements are there.”