Ethiopian Beef Jerkey (Quanta)

I bought myself a food dehydrator this winter and have used it for a handful of things, one of which was a prime reason for making the purchase: jerky. Which, having previously made jerky only from venison, I have to admit that trimming the fat from beef, even from lean cuts, is so much more tedious! I also have yet to develop a good method for making some longer nice thin cuts of the beef - at least the way my eye of round roast was butchered, which I found less than ideal. But I will withhold final judgement until I've tried other cuts. Also, I realized after dehydrating that I could have cut the beef a bit thicker - good to know!

Quanta firfir is a very popular Ethiopian dish using dried meat (jerky) and dried injera. I've had it before, but have not made it at home. So while my primary interest in making jerky is as canoe trip travel food, a secondary interest is to make quanta firfir. At some future date, when I will have some tutorial. (Which, I just realized would also make a good canoe trip meal because it uses all dried ingredients! Huzzah!) I did embark on making this jerky independent of my Ethiopian friend because I was able to watch a youtube video in Amharic where the ingredients were typed out in English. Friends, this turned out amazing! I love these spices - the spiciness of the mitmita totally kicks this jerky out of the park.

The spices mixed in with the beef made me so hungry for kitfo (I admit I sampled some raw jerky morsels b/c I couldn't resist). You will need Ethiopian spices if you make this - there just will not be a proper substitute. 

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds of lean beef (eye of round, flank, etc), trimmed of all fat, cut thinly
• 2 tsp Berbere
• 5 T Mitmita
  
• 2 T salt 
• 2 1/2 tsp Korerema (false cardamom, ground)
• 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
  

Mix all spices together in a small bowl. 

Add spice mix, a little at a time, to the sliced beef. Mix very thoroughly and well with your (gloved) hands. Your goal is to cover all the meat surface with some spice mix. This will take some time. Once the beef is covered, let it marinate in the fridge for 6-12 hours.

To dry: lay in a single layer on your dehydrator racks, making sure that no meat is overlapping. Dry at 145 degrees for 4-10 hours, depending on the thickness of your jerky. (Because I cut mine so thin, it was done after 6 hours. I could have pulled several pieces after 4, but instead have some very thin extra crispy bits.) 

You know your jerky is done when there is no squish to the meat, and the jerky is pliable and leathery. If they break when you bend them, they are overly dry. You want them to bend and crack, but not break when cool (much like a green stick from the forest).