Injera

Ingredients

• Teff flour500 g
• Water1.2 l
• Ersho starter — from a previous batch100 ml
• Salt1 tsp
• Vegetable oil20 ml

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Mix the teff flour with water to the consistency of pouring cream, without lumps.

   12 min

2. 2

   Cover it with a cloth and leave it at room temperature for three days, without stirring.

   10 min

3. 3

   Pour off the liquid that has separated on top; it is bitter and must not be left in.

   5 min

4. 4

   Take a cup of the batter, cook it in boiling water to a thick paste and stir it back in.

   15 min

5. 5

   Let the batter stand another two hours and let it down with water to a very thin cream.

   15 min

6. 6

   Heat a wide pan, oil it lightly and pour the batter in a spiral from the rim to the centre.

   8 min

7. 7

   Cover for two minutes, until eyes appear all over the surface, and lift it off without turning.

   35 min

About the dish

The batter ferments three days at room temperature. The sourness is not a side effect but the taste of injera itself; a one-day ferment gives a bland pancake.

The holes on the surface — the "eyes" — are the sign of a proper ferment. They come from carbon dioxide bubbles, and a bread without eyes counts as a failure.

It is cooked on one side only and never turned. The top finishes in steam under a lid, and that is exactly why it stays porous and soft.

Worth knowing

• — The first batch is made without a starter — the ferment begins on wild yeasts, but it takes longer and is less predictable.
• — The cooked breads are stacked and covered with a cloth. In the open air they dry out and go brittle within half an hour.
• — Mixing teff with wheat or barley flour is ordinary in Ethiopia and is not considered a shortcut. Pure teff is dearer and darker.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

280 kcal

Protein

9 g

Fat

3 g

Carbs

56 g

More from Ethiopia

• Doro wat — Chicken in a thick berbere sauce, built on a kilo of onion cooked dry until it disintegrates.
• Misir wat — Red lentils in a berbere sauce. A fasting dish eaten in Ethiopia on fast days all year round.
• Kitfo — Hand-chopped raw beef worked with spiced niter kibbeh butter and mitmita spice.