Injera

[nessa]

I discoverd injera a week or so ago at one of our local Ethiopian groceries. I bought a huge package of it and really didn't know what to do with it all. I made a beef wat, of sorts, and it was fabulous with that. So what to do with the other 4.75 pounds of it? I froze most of it, but left out a quarter of it. I decided to see how well it fried. Its *#$%$@%^& AWESOME!!!!!

I cut it in thick strips and fried it, and have plans to dip it in hummus if there happens to be any left over. I keep wandering into the kitchen to snag a strip and munch. Thin, crunchy, sour... its really quite divine.

Has anyone ever tried this? I fried them in the same oil that I used for frying vada, so the oil imparted some lovely flavors.

[marlena spieler]

Yum, Nessa, fried injera strips--I've eaten it fried with ripe tomatoes, chillies, garlic etc. Really wonderful!

[Sleepy_Dragon]

I love injera too. I like to eat leftover injera for breakfast as the bread that goes with some spicy scrambled eggs. Especially with butter melted over it.

Haven't tried frying it yet, but the addition of tomatoes and chilies is similar to fit-fit, a salad great for leftover injera. Chop it up with chopped red onion, jalapenos, tomatoes and garlic, and mix with lemon juice, melted butter and salt and pepper, let sit for a bit to let the flavors sythesize, and eat.

Pat

Edited May 9, 2004 by Sleepy_Dragon (log)

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Hm, my Ethiopian cookbook says to use vegetable oil rather than butter for tomato fit-fit, but I'm partial to butter, hehe!

Pat

[skunkbunny]

I know that this is old... but you need to make the nitter kibbe to fry your injera... that stuff is sooo gooood.. I have also seen dried injera... maybe for next time

[nessa]

Color me ignorant, but what is nitter kibbe? Is it a variation on the lebanese lamb and bulgar kibbe? I'm intrigued.

While I loved the fried injera, it was realllllllly oily, so I think I'm going to lightly oil and season the strips next time and bake them or broil them. I'm thinking they will be stellar with baba ganouj.

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Niter kibe is spiced butter. Delicious heavenly spiced butter. My favorite Ethiopian restaurants always have a nice oil slick of it over the food, hehe. It makes the injera lined underneath the food so rich and juicy!

I posted a recipe in an earlier thread out of one of my books, towards the bottom.

Pat

Edited June 28, 2004 by Sleepy_Dragon (log)

[FoodMan]

Ok, what is Injera? Please educate me.

Elie

[nessa]

My pleasure to do so, Elie!

Injera is an Ethiopian flatbread made out of a fermented teff flour batter. They are very thin, moist and flexible. Here it is quartered. You can see the bubbles, thats the top side. They are cooked only on one side, the bottom lacks the lacy look. They are typically cooked in these huge skillets and are used instead of utensils to scoop up food and sauce.

Very sour flavor, and just delicious!

[FoodMan]

My pleasure to do so, Elie!

Injera is an Ethiopian flatbread made out of a fermented teff flour batter. They are very thin, moist and flexible. Here it is quartered. You can see the bubbles, thats the top side. They are cooked only on one side, the bottom lacks the lacy look. They are typically cooked in these huge skillets and are used instead of utensils to scoop up food and sauce.

Very sour flavor, and just delicious!

Very interesting, it looks like the Indian Dosa. Honestly, I have never had Ethiopian food. I think we have a restaurant in Houston, so I might check it out.

Thanks

Elie

[tryska]

does injera taste like a dosa?

[gingerly]

like a soft,sour ragi dosa. this might belong on the things i love thread but-anyone tried it with toasted sesame butter and honey?heh!

[tryska]

is teff like ragi? i like ragi actually. if it's in sangati.

[gingerly]

is also a millet i think.i like ragi too.

[tryska]

cool. now i've got to hunt down frozen injera....

[scott123]

Very interesting, it looks like the Indian Dosa. Honestly, I have never had Ethiopian food. I think we have a restaurant in Houston, so I might check it out.

Definitely check out that restaurant. Ethiopian food, when done well, is on par with any other nationality of cuisine.

If there's Ethiopians eating in the restaurant you go to, watch carefully the way they use the injera to make packets of food by pressing the food into the injera rather than just scooping it up and making a mess. In the hundreds of times I've dined at Ethiopian restaurants I have never seen an Ethiopian ever get food on themselves. Westerners, on the other hand, have a tendency to be complete slobs

It's all in the technique. Concentrate on getting the injera around the clump of food so a little pocket is formed. Ethiopians I've watched have an interesting rhythm. Presspresspresspresspresspressclose eat. It helps if the food isn't too watery or too chunky. The real secret is getting the most of the main dish with as little bread as possible. That will come with practice.

[gingerly]

is also a millet i think.i like ragi too.

millet

For many years, food writers included millet as the key ingredient for the Ethiopian bread "injera", but now only about 5% of all injera is made from millet. Most utilize a grain that closely resembles millet, called teff.

Edited June 28, 2004 by gingerly (log)

[chromedome]

Teff is the smallest of cultivated grains, being a fraction of millet's size. In fact its name is thought to be derived from a word in a regional dialect which means "lost." Aside from its flavour and nutritive value, its great distinction is that it is the most drought-hardy of grains, surely a recommendation in Ethiopia of all places.

Typically, in areas which may-or-may-not get enough water for other grains, maize will be attempted first, with millet and then teff as the fall-back crops. I'm assuming that this would be due to the relative yields of the crops; and the relative difficulty of milling teff given its tininess.

I think I have a little bit left in my cupboard as I write this. It's bloody expensive stuff, about $13/lb when I bought it last. Remarkably tasty stuff, though.

[Pongi]

Personally I can't find similarities between dosa and injera, which seem to be at the opposite sides of a cathegory of food that, maybe, has in its middle our Ligurian "Panigacci". Dosas are crispy, crunchy and tasty, while injera is soft, fluffy and has a sour taste that I never found in dosas.

Anyway, an odd thing happens to me! Every time I make dosas, I get something pretty soft which doesn't look that much like the dosas I know and love

On the other side, the only time I tried to make injera I got perfect dosas!

But, even admitting that this result wasn't serendipitous the injera issue remains...so, I have some questions for those who can make it by scratch.

Since it's unlikely that I can find teff here in Genoa, where Ethiopians are few, which type of grain could I use? Some recipes I found suggest half white wheat flour and half maize flour, does it make sense? Am I supposed to add a leavening agent (some recipes call for natural yeast) or the batter must ferment by itself?

Another question: can I cook injera into a nonstick pan?

TIA!

Pongi

[scott123]

I cringe when I see non teff injera recipes. Without the teff,it's not injera.

Do you have any Ethiopian restaurants near you? A restaurant will usually sell you some teff.

By the time you factor in shipping it's outrageously expensive, but here is one online source that ships internationally:

http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/tr...s/tfcatalog.htm

[Camdon]

I cringe when I see non teff injera recipes.  Without the teff,it's not injera.

That's not true. Teff injera is the staple but it is also made with other flour.

Since it's unlikely that I can find teff here in Genoa, where Ethiopians are few, which type of grain could I use? Some recipes I found suggest half white wheat flour and half maize flour, does it make sense? Am I supposed to add a leavening agent (some recipes call for natural yeast) or the batter must ferment by itself?

Another question: can I cook injera into a nonstick pan?

1. I would recomend trying to track down some Teff. I you do a google search there a several vendors listed that might ship internationally if you email them. Buckwheat injera is also good. Keep in mind that Ethiopians usually roast grains like buckwheat before grinding them.

2. In my family the batter is always left to ferment on the kitchen counter like you would a sourdough.

3. My mother has a large electric clay injera maker that she brought back from Addis for my wedding but I don't think she has ever used it. Her tool of choice is a large round non-stick electric griddle that I believe is marketed as a lefse (or maybe crepe) maker. Any flat (or slightly convex) round pans will work fine

[redbacon]

I am looking for any information on an authentic injera recipe. I have tried all teff recipes, and I have tried recipes with a mixture of teff and wheat flours--none are as tastey as in restaurants. If anyone has a successful recipe, I'd be grateful to know about it!

[Dejah]

I would like to have a recipe for injera...if this is the Ethiopian bread for dipping into food.

My ESL class is mostly Ethiopians and I have enjoyed their cooking many times. They have tried to tell me their recipe, but we still have a language problem

[LNorman]

HI: I was looking for info on Ethiopian recipes myself and used the search feature.

I found the following thread with lots of sources of recipes.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=36956

I had an idea for your ESL class. Maybe you could have a cooking class where the students show you how to make injera and you take good notes and measure what they are using. Then show them some quick American or British food, like french fries, grilled cheese, eggs, something easy. Then you could work on a recipe book that shows measurement. I know that most countries use the metric system but it might be a good experience for your students to see that some countries still persist in keeping their identities through old forms of measurement.

Good luck.