Kitfo, the Ethiopian beef tartar, is a favorite dish in DJ's family. It can be an intimidating dish to prepare because the meat is essentially left raw. But DJ's mom and his aunt are experts at making it, and it's a treat whenever they place it on the table.
Well, when DJ's aunt visited us this winter she offered to show us how the magic is done. We learned that while kitfo appears simple on the plate and doesn't require many minutes on the stove, it is actually very time-consuming to make because of the prep work.
The first step is finding the right cut of meat. Mel always thought you use ground beef because kitfo has that chunky appearance on the plate. But actually, ground beef is the worst thing to use for this dish because butchers include the fat when they grind it and the key to the powerful flavor of kitfo is to not include any fat at all. So DJ's aunt recommended just looking for the cut of meat that seems freshest that day - a deep color with as little fat as possible. This time we chose an eye round.
You then carefully slice off small chunks at a time and cut them into tiny pieces (about 1cm cubes). As you do this, make sure to cut out any lines of fat. (But do not throw away the fatty meat. Keep that in a separate pile to sautee into delicious tibs.)
The reason the pieces need to be small is because the next step is to grind them in the food processor. If the chunks are too big to begin with, the meat will not have the right consistency after being warmed. It's also best to grind in small batches so you can be sure that all the meat winds up the same. You want it to look like this:
Once all the meat is prepped, you prepare the pan by melting down a hunk of clarified butter. We were lucky enough to have access to the butter DJ's aunt makes herself, which obviously adds a whole other element of flavor. The puddle of butter should be enough to lightly coat however much meat you're working with, and most importantly NOT TOO HOT. This isn't a sizzle situation. You want it to melt down and then stay at a temperature just a tad above warm.
The reason you don't want it too hot is because you actually then mix the meat and butter by hand. This is apparently a key piece of the process - blending the meat into the butter in a sweeping/pressing motion.
Once the meat is evenly blended with the butter, you season with a bit of mitmita (an Ethiopian spice blend of salt, black cardamom seed, ajwain seeds, Kalonji seeds, and ground African bird's eye chili peppers). We didn't have any mitmita in the house, so we sprinkled a bit of the berbere blend we had in the pantry. And that was it! For folks who want truly rare kitfo, you only leave the meat in the pan long enough to blend with the butter. If you prefer the meat a bit more well-done, keep mixing it on the heat with the butter until it reaches the color you feel comfortable with. The key is that no matter how rare or well-done, the meat should have a light and loose consistency. Otherwise, you're leaving the realm of calling your dish kitfo and entering the realm of calling it hamburger meat.
Oh, and remember those fatty bits of meat we put to the side when slicing? Clear the pan of all the butter grease and throw those bad boys in there over a medium fire. Their natural fat will start to sizzle and provide all the grease needed to cook the beef nicely. Season with salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme and sautee until a medium rare. Voila! You have yourself a nice serving of tibs as well!
We can't thank DJ's aunt enough for this cooking lesson! We'll definitely try to make it again on our own soon.
