Shiro is a stew from Ethiopia made with roasted split pea flour, while Japanese shiro miso is a flavoring made from fermented soybeans. Shiro stew is served with injera bread and seasoned with berebere spice mix, while miso is commonly used in miso soup.
Shiro is an Ethiopian stew made from cured spice peas or a Japanese flavoring agent also known as white miso. Ethiopian shiro stew, also called shiro wot, contains roasted split peas that have been ground into a flour called shiro flour. The flour is softened into a paste in boiling water which is seasoned with spices and served with a traditional African bread. Miso is a Japanese staple used in food in many ways, but is most commonly seen in the soup known as miso soup.
Although the split pea flour used in Ethiopian stew can be made at home, most cooks buy the flour at the store. Those lucky enough to be near a market that caters to Ethiopian consumers may be able to find shiro flour. In other grocery stores, this type of flour is often called split pea flour, pea flour, or cornmeal, and is most likely to be found in grocery stores that carry specialty and artisanal grains. Sometimes, chickpea flour is replaced with split pea flour.
Shiro stew is commonly served atop a fermented flatbread called injera. This bread is traditionally made with a grain called teff, which comes from an East African grass, but can be made with other grains when teff isn’t available. Injera is similar in shape to a pancake, but is not flipped when cooked and is generally cooked on an earthenware plate over a fire.
Making this type of stew starts with cooking the shallots in a pan with a small amount of water. Once the shallots are softened, a spice mix called berebere is added with a little oil and fresh garlic and the mixture is lightly browned. Berebere, also called berbere, is a common spice blend that contains a number of spices including cardamom, cumin, and basil. The mixture is then cooked briefly in water before the flour enters the hot liquid, where the shiro flour thickens in the boiling water until it reaches the desired consistency.
Japanese miso is a flavoring made from fermented soybeans, although it is often blended with another ingredient. One of the more popular varieties of miso is shiro miso, or shiromiso, commonly found alongside a plate of sushi at a Japanese restaurant. Aside from the kome miso class that contains shiromiso, other types of miso are many, but they include mugi miso, which contains barley, and mame miso, which is made only from soybeans.
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