Delicious Tuesday: Breakfast - Chechebsa!

I honestly don't boast myself at being a domestic diva as most of my girls out there truly are. But I know my way around kitchen... especially when I am hungry (who doesn't, right?). This is not my fault at all though. I am kinda spoiled by the most balemooya men in my family (yes, I said MEN. They give most of you ladies out there a run for your money) who enjoy tearing it up in a kitchen in a regular bases.

We will start the 'Delicious (insert a day of the week here)' segment with arguably one of the easiest meals to prepare but the most delicious and fun breakfast recipes.  Chechebsa is one of the very few Ethiopian meals where you use a fork or a spoon to eat instead of your hands. This, by no means, is not your Yeshi Buna chechebsa. And remember there are no rules when it comes to how you should treat your taste buds or belly to what it's craving for. This is just a simple and basic guide to start you up. I encourage you to experiment with different ingredients, go all out and make it your own. That is what I do anyways. Just don't forget to come back and let me know how it all went down. 


Chechebsa aka Kita firfir : A mouth watering dish of shredded pieces of flat bread (think of dorito size)  lightly fried in a berbere (an Ethiopian spicy hot red pepper powder) and clarified butter mix. 

Yummy yum yum yum

Ingredients
- a cup of all purpose flour (if you are one of those health freaks you can substitute it with your choice of flour. Just be sure you can make flat bread from it ).
- 3 or 4 table spoon of clarified butter (or olive oil) - (I will post a step by step guide on how to prepare butter Ethiopian style soon for those who don't have access to it... till then visit your moms, borrow from a friend or pay a visit to your local Ethiopian shop)
- 2 tea spoon of berbere (this portion depends on how sensitive you are to hot stuff. If you are not a fan of spicy hot, then bring down the portion to 1 tea spoon or less)
- salt
- water



How to prepare:
The flat bread aka Kita aka chapati aka pita 
Preparing the kita is so easy even a cave man can do it (can you tell someone is a fan of Geico commercials? lol ). The whole thing doesn't take more than few minutes. Start by mixing the flour with a pinch of salt or wait till it is all cooked and done and sprinkle some salt while you are mixing your pieces of flat bread with the berbere and butter as I do. 


In a small bowl, start making a batter by slowly adding water to the flour and mixing it well. The thickness of the kita depends on the thickness of the batter. Just be careful to not to make it watery.  If you feel it is too thin, just add a little bit more flour. Beat the batter well so it wouldn't have any lumps. You can always check the consistence by lifting your beater/stirrer or whatever tool you are using to beat your dough.


Dress a frying pan with a little oil and heat it to a medium hot. Slowly pour your batter onto the hot pan in a thin layer. The thiner the layer, the tastier your Chechebsa becomes (that is me, though). If you feel you have put too much batter to one side or at the center of the pan, just move the pan side to side or use the back of a spoon to flatten/spread it out. Wait two to three minutes and flip the kita so the top gets fried too. The light brown spots should be your signals to tell you the kita is fully cooked.  Once done frying the kita, put it aside to cool. 


The Chechebsa
Once the kita is cool enough to touch it with your hands, tear it to small pieces on a plate. Put the butter and berbere in a frying pan and set the oven to medium. Let the butter melt slowly together with the berbere for a minute or so. Be careful not to burn the berbere. Add the pieces of kita into the pan and stir them all well so all the pieces soak in the butter/berbere mix uniformly. 


Take it off the heat and enjoy with a hot cup of cinnamon and clove tea.