Mitmita
This birdseye hot chili pepper blend is a rich mixture of the most potent of Ethiopian tiny chili peppers, organic spices and exotic herbs. It is used as a primary condiment for raw beef delicacies like kitfo (Ethiopian style steak tartar), kurt (Ethiopian style beef sashimi), doulet (a lamb, liver, tripe and lean beef mixture) and gored-gored (lean, tender beef cubes simmered in berbere). As of late, mitmita is popularly served blended with Ethiopian brown mustard and fresh lemon for dip but can also be used as marinade for the grill. It is also great for topping yogurt and Ethiopian cheeses like ayeb. Even more essential than berbere, mitmita is an indispensable condiment in Ethiopian cuisine, comparable to black pepper in the West. Sprinkling a pinch of mitmita to the final stage of pasta and barbeque sauces, soups, grilled meats, yogurts, vegetables, dairy products, fish and legumes can make for a peppery, well seasoned layering of tastes. Preparation: Unlike berbere and awaze, which require a lengthy two-week preparation process, mitmita is constructed over a much shorter 5 days. This is largely because there is no marinating necessary when preparing mitmita. Made of indigenous birdseye chilies, this burnt-orange blend uses the most pungent peppers available. To increase potency the peppers are left with seeds intact and are washed then sun-dried with sea salt, and cardamom shells for fiber. The fiery blend is then mixed with wild, handpicked korerima, netch azmud, sea salt, and sprinkled with kosseret. Mitmita seasoning varies throughout Ethiopia but usually contains korerima, kosseret, bessobela , netch azmud, and kundo berbere and is always milled to a fine powder.