We are having good friends over tonight and its my girlfriend’s birthday and she has requested I cook Ethiopian food as we haven’t had it in awhile. You pretty much can’t have Ethiopian without injera, the wild fermented flat bread that serves as a serving platter and eating utensil. You just make a batter of teff flour and water and let it sit in a bowl for a couple of days until it bubbles then cook like a crepe but don’t flip it. It is delicate and lacy but also doesn’t break too easily. It is served with a variety of colorful stews placed directly on the injera then you use other pieces of injera to eat with. At the end you have injera soaked with the rich, spicy sauces.
I started mine Friday afternoon and today, Sunday morning, it is clearly fermenting.
So that’s how they do it! There is a fantastic Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant in Providence, and I always heard it described as a sourdough pancake, but I always knew that it was more complicated than that. Thanks for sharing. Looks great.
VERY nice. Your injera looks better than any of my attempts. The last few times I cooked an Ethiopian feast (and not, it’s not an oxymoron ;D) I bought some injera from the local Ethiopian restaurant.
I haven’t given up though!!! I’ll get it right eventually.
I recommend not trying to make them quite as big as the ones they make in restaurants. Also a good, well seasoned pan, in my case cast iron helps. I wipe the pan with an oil soaked paper towel between each injera. The temperature is important too. Hot enough to make it start cooking right away but not so hot that it will get dark before cooking through.
Man, I love me some Ethiopian food. We have a good one that’s fairly centrally located (within 15 minutes) from the major breweries in St. Louis if anyone is ever in the area.