Hosting 40 adults and kids for Thanksgiving is a nightmare for some. For Washingtonian Charles Duan, his wife Jenny, and their two kids Alex and Teddy (who goes by “Bagel”), it was only part of the challenge they undertook for their 2018 feast. As if cooking for that many people in their Adams Morgan condo wasn’t enough, the Duans wanted to blend local flavors into their holiday menu.

Duan has been exploring the city’s food scene since he moved to D.C. in 2012. In particular, he and his wife have spent plenty of time learning more about D.C.’s Ethiopian cuisine. “When we moved to D.C., we ended up buying a place in Adams Morgan, largely because the place was two blocks away from [Ethiopian restaurant] Keren,” Duan tells hosts Ruth Tam and Patrick Fort on WAMU’s podcast Dish City. “Local foods have always been kind of a thing for us.”

Their idea for a “local foods-themed Friendsgiving” started with an off-the-cuff idea for a stuffing made with injera, the sour, spongy, Ethiopian bread. They ended up with five unique recipes for a distinctly D.C. Thanksgiving: Mushroom Injera Stuffing, Cranberry Mumbo Sauce, Half-Smoke Green Beans, Sweet Potato Pupusas, and Chicken Yassa Casserole and Stuffing.

Listen here to Ruth and Patrick interview Charles about his D.C. Thanksgiving, and try his family’s recipes on your own.

Mushroom Injera Stuffing

45 minutes
Serves 4-6

• • 1 pound white mushrooms, minced
  • 1 medium onion, minced
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup dry vermouth or white wine (optional)
  • 1 pound injera (1-1½ full rounds or about 8 rolls), chopped into quarter inch pieces
  • Seasonings and spices to taste (try a combination of 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, allspice, clove, mushroom powder or smoked salt, or thyme, rosemary, sage)
  • Salt and pepper

1. Melt butter in large saute pan. On low heat, saute onion until translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add optional dry vermouth or white wine, allowing most of it to boil away.
2. Add mushrooms and a generous sprinkle of salt. Continue to saute on low to medium heat, stirring frequently, until the liquid released from the mushrooms has mostly evaporated and the mushrooms are fairly dark.
3. Add the injera pieces and combine well with the mushrooms, dividing across two batches or pans as necessary. Add seasonings, salt, and pepper to taste. If you would like the stuffing to have a crust: Add additional butter or oil if the pan looks dry, press the mixture down on the pan, and saute on medium-high heat. Alternately, bake in an oven-safe dish for about 10 to 15 minutes until the top layer is crisp.

Note: Cooking the mushrooms in the first half of this recipe is similar to the process for making the French dish, duxelles. To season his stuffing, Charles used allspice, cloves and porcini mushroom powder, but he says you can use traditional stuffing herbs like thyme and sage or other spice blends.

Cranberry Mumbo Sauce

20 minutes
Serves 6-10

• • 12 ounces fresh cranberries
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup ketchup, tomato paste or barbecue sauce (try a combination!)
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • Salt and pepper

1. In a saucepan, cook cranberries, sugar, and a few spoonfuls of water over low heat, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have softened and their juices are frothy and fragrant.

2. Add your combination of ketchup, tomato paste and barbecue sauce along with hot sauce and soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. If desired, blend the sauce until smooth.

Note: For the cup of wet ingredients, Dish City used 1 cup ketchup and 1 tablespoon tomato paste. For hot sauce, we used Franks Red Hot.

Half-Smoke Green Beans

40 minutes
Serves 4-6

• • 3/4 pound fresh green beans, blanched
  • 1/2 pound half-smoke sausage, cut into half moons
  • 1 ½ cup milk

  • 1 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour

  • 1 ½ tablespoons butter or oil, as needed

  • Shot of whiskey (optional)

  • Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375˚ Fahrenheit.

2. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, fry sausage over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes until sausage is fragrant and begins to brown. Remove sausage and set aside, reserving oil in the pan.

3. Make a roux by whisking in flour. Flour mixture should ultimately be equal to the amount of fat in the pan, so add butter or more flour as necessary to form a smooth paste. Cook paste over medium heat around 2 minutes.
4. While continuing to whisk, pour in milk and optional shot of whiskey. Cook until the gravy thickens and reaches a boil.
5. Add sausage and green beans in pan. Season salt and pepper to taste.

6. Place skillet in the oven for about 15 minutes until the green beans are tender and heated through.

Note: Charles didn’t do this last year, but recommends frying a jumbo slice on a skillet until the crust is crispy and julienning it into thin strips for topping. Which jumbo slice, you might ask? Dealer’s choice.

Sweet Potato Pupusas

1½ – 2 hours
Makes about 12

• • 3 cups masa

  • 2 teaspoons salt

  • 2 ½ cups cold water

  • 2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 ½  pounds)

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

  • 1/4 cup sugar (optional)

  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

1. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender, about 1 hour. If oven space is tight, boil for about 45 minutes.
2. While sweet potatoes are cooking, make the pupusa dough by combining salt and masa, and then kneading in water by hand or with a mixer. The dough should be coherent and not crack when pressed. It can’t be too sticky; add masa or water to adjust. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, covered by a moist paper towel.
3. Peel the sweet potatoes, then mash, mixing in optional sugar and spices if desired.
4. Form the pupusas: With wet hands, pinch off a ball of the masa dough about the size of a tangerine, and flatten it into a disk or a cup shape. Place a spoonful of filling in the middle, and close the masa disk into a ball by pinching the top edge together. Flatten the ball out into a disk. (You can follow this video for the technique.)
5. Fry the pupusas on an oiled pan or griddle on both sides, until the dough is cooked through and browned.

Chicken Yassa Casserole & Stuffing

1 hour, not including marinade time
Serves 6

• • 6 chicken quarter pieces

  • 5 medium onions (about 2 pounds), thinly sliced

  • 1/2 cup lemon juice

  • 1/4 cup canola or olive oil, plus more for cooking onions and browning chicken

  • 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder

  • 2 tablespoons mustard

  • 4 cloves garlic, minced

  • 8 slices bread, torn to 1-inch pieces

  • Hot sauce or hot pepper (habanero or scotch bonnet), optional

  • Salt and pepper

1. Combine lemon juice, oil, bouillon, mustard, garlic, and hot sauce or pepper. Marinate the chicken in this sauce for at least 3 hours or overnight. Reserve the marinade.

2. When you’re ready to cook, preheat oven to 375˚ Fahrenheit.

3. In a baking tray large enough to hold all the chicken pieces without overlapping, spread the torn bread to form a first layer.

4. On a saute pan, heat oil until shimmering and cook onions over low heat until translucent. Layer the onions on top of the bread.

5. In the same pan, brown the chicken pieces on both sides, and layer them on top of the onions. Pour the reserved marinade into the pan and boil, adding water as necessary to make for about a cup of sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken.

6. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the chicken registers an internal temperature of 165˚ Fahrenheit for white meat or 185˚ Fahrenheit for dark.

7. Remove the chicken to a serving plate. Mix and fluff the onions and bread in the tray. This is your stuffing. Return the tray to the oven to bake until the top layer is crisp. Serve together.

This story originally appeared at WAMU.