
Kitcha
Abuja, Nigeria ·
Aperçu
Kitcha is an unleavened Ethiopian and Eritrean flatbread, wheat flour, water and salt, rolled thin and cooked dry in a pan on both sides until it colours in characteristic dark spots. It is written ቂጣ in Amharic and ቂቻ in Tigrinya, and it belongs to both traditions. Its simplicity is the point: no yeast, no rising time, three ingredients. It is the bread you make when bread is needed now, and it is one of the first things many people learn to cook. It is usually served warm with melted spiced butter, which turns something plain into something rich. Chilli and cardamom are sometimes worked into the dough itself. Its most important role is as the base of fit-fit, also called fir-fir, where the bread is torn into pieces and mixed with spiced butter, berbere and sometimes stew, and eaten with the hands. Kitcha fit-fit is a breakfast staple across Ethiopia and Eritrea, and it is the reason kitcha is often made in quantity: the bread is the ingredient rather than the finished thing. The dark spots that appear during cooking are correct, not a mistake.




