Gomen Kitfo
የጎመን ክትፎ·(go-men keet-fo)
Sunday Suppers: Slow Wots & Gathering
Supermarket collards aren't a stew; they are a twenty-minute vegetable side built on spiced butter. Once they collapse on the cutting board, the greens mostly cook themselves, bringing the deeply intoxicating aromas of an Addis Ababa feast straight into an Ohio Tuesday night. The one trick you absolutely cannot skip is wringing the boiled greens completely dry—they must be practically desiccated so they can drink up the warm, spiced niter kibbeh like a sponge, letting the hot pan and butter do the heavy lifting.
Ingredients
- fresh collard greens2 lb
- niter kibbeh4 tbsp
- mitmita1 tsp
- ground korerima1/2 tsp
- kosher salt1/2 tsp
Method
- 01
Boil the greens until they surrender.
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a rolling boil, drop in the collards, cover, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until their rigid structure is entirely broken down.
- 02
Wring out every last drop of water.
Drain the greens and rinse briefly with cold water just until you can handle them. Grab handfuls and squeeze them aggressively over the sink like a wet towel until you have tight, dry, dense balls of greens; if you think you've squeezed it all out, squeeze again.
- 03
Mince the dry greens.
Transfer the dry bundles to a cutting board and chop them very finely, aiming for a texture that mimics the finely ground beef of a traditional meat kitfo.
- 04
Bloom the spices in warm butter.
Place a skillet over the absolute lowest possible heat setting. Once the niter kibbeh has just melted and is warm—do not let it sizzle or pop—stir in the salt and korerima.
- 05
Hydrate the greens with the fat.
Fold the minced greens into the skillet, using a wooden spoon to thoroughly massage the spiced butter into the vegetable tissue until every fleck is glossy and coated.
- 06
Add the fire off the heat.
Remove the pan from the heat entirely before stirring in the mitmita. This preserves the bright, fiery punch of the bird's eye chilies without oxidizing the volatile spices into something bitter.
Notes
Serve with a cooling dairy counterpart.
The intense heat of the mitmita demands relief. Serve a scoop of authentic ayib (or dry, small-curd American cottage cheese) adjacent to the greens, and scoop it all up with fresh injera.