''Mitmita'' (, ) is a powdered seasoning mix used in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. It is orange-red in color and contains ground African bird's eye chili peppers, Ethiopian cardamom (korerima),

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

s, and

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

.Mesfin, D.J. ''Exotic Ethiopian Cooking'' (2006): 20. Falls Church, VA: Ethiopian Cookbooks Enterprises It occasionally has other spices including

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

cumin Cumin (, ; ; ''Cuminum cyminum'') is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Irano-Turanian Region. Its seeds – each one contained within a fruit, which is dried – are used in the cuisines of many cultures in both whole ...

, and

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

. The mixture is used to season the raw beef dish ''

kitfo ''Kitfo'' (, ) is an Ethiopian traditional dish that originated among the Gurage people. It consists of minced raw beef, marinated in '' mitmita'' (a chili-based spice powder) and '' niter kibbeh'' (a clarified butter infused with herbs and spi ...

'' and may also be sprinkled on '' ful medames'' ( fava beans). In addition, ''mitmita'' may be presented as a condiment and sprinkled on other dishes or spooned onto a piece of '' injera'', so that morsels may be lightly dipped into it. It is generally made from hot peppers that are stronger than those used in berbere, the other main spice in

Ethiopian cuisine Ethiopian cuisine ( "Ye-Ītyōṗṗyā məgəb") characteristically consists of vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes. This is usually in the form of ''wat (food), wat,'' a thick stew, served on top of ''injera'' (), a large sourdough f ...

References

Ethiopian cuisine Herb and spice mixtures {{spicemix-stub am:ሚጥሚጣ

See also

References