Injera...an Ethiopian Staple

The Ethiopian Princess

The mat I use to carry the injera from the grill to the table to cool...

it is a woven flexible place mat I found a while back.


My injera is it rolled and waiting to be eaten

I buy my teff in bulk from my natural food co-op

Injera is a staple in Ethiopia. It is a flat bread with a very sour taste and rather a spongy texture. Injera is eaten with many stews, meats, sauces and vegetable dishes. I think it is one of those things you either adore or dislike. We happen to adore it, for several reasons:

It's from Ethiopia, we ate the real thing there in January, they don't use utensils-just injera to pick up their food, they not only eat with their hands~ but with their hearts, injera is mild...but much of the food is laced with Berbere which is rather spicy! We are now also Berbere addicts-even Baby Mercy, who is all of 18 months old !

My second attempt at injera...

my first batch happened two weeks after we were home from Ethiopia in January. My husband's Ethiopian friends were impressed that I was making it myself! Mine still needs improvement before Princess Sweetness comes home- though we have been told she likes to cook...so maybe she will teach me how to really make it. (yeah!!)

Berbere spiced tofu, scrambled eggs with fenegreek, injera

Princess Mercy, our Ethiopian girl, approves of Mama's Ethiopian cooking

mmmmmm....

The recipe:

*sour dough starter

salt, to taste

teff wheat (1 lb bag)

warm water-(enough to make dough into a ball and later to thin it)

large bowl

cotton tablecloth...or cooling racks

vegetable oil for grill or large skillet you choose to use

*I add a 1/4 cup of teff sour dough starter to my recipe, I have this on hand always now.

Mix the teff, water, salt together. Knead it until it comes together in a ball, do so until no more lumps (about 10-20 minutes of kneading, if your arms ache you are almost there).

Allow to sit covered for 1-3 days. (I have never been patient enough to wait 3 days, that is why I add the starter right before I am ready to cook it).

When your teff dough has fermented to your liking, begin to add more water, at this point I add in my teff sour dough starter too. You want a very crepe like consistency, thinner than pancake batter. Allow for this to sit for 4-6 hours on your counter...yes, you need to think ahead to make this for dinner. At this point I run it through my blender in small batches, depositing it into a new large clean bowl as it is done being mixed. (save out 1 cup of this mix to use as your sour dough starter...feed it once a week, with milk and teff flour)

Heat up your large skillet. I use my stove top grill...heated to medium high. I add a little vegetable oil that I wipe on with a paper towel, in Ethiopia they don't use oil in their Mitad (the pan). Once the grill is good and hot I begin to cover the whole surface with injera batter-rolling it about to make sure it is thin and as even as you can. I can't roll it on my grill; so I use the back of a ladel to distribute it evenly on the grill surface. Cover the pan or grill (I make an aluminum foil cover for our grill)...the injera needs to steam. It will be done when you see tons of little bubbles (or eyes) rise from the dough-the dough will be dry.

Don't flip it, but carefully lift it off the grill and put it on a waiting cotton tablecloth to cool.

Once cool you can roll them up and they are ready to be eaten. I make enough so we have leftovers for a few days.

***If this sounds like madness to you, email me and I will walk you through it.

King Meemer letting you know that Mama used the Berbere in the eggs and tofu. The kids beg me to baptize everything in Berbere...really! And we don't use a little, we use a lot!

I'd have to say...Berbere is kicking hot!