Cookbook:Injera (Ethiopian Teff Flatbread)

Injera (Ethiopian Teff Flatbread)
Category	Ethiopian recipes
Servings	6–8
Time	Fermentation: 12–24 hours Cooking: 5 minutes per injera

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Injera is a flatbread eaten in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is made with teff flour. Teff is a tiny round grain that is grown in the highlands of Eritrea and highlands of Ethiopia. While teff is very nutritious, pure teff flour contains no gluten, and little else in the way of binding proteins. This makes teff ill-suited for making raised bread; however injera still takes advantage of the special properties of fermentation, which gives it an airy, bubbly texture, and also a sour taste.

Ingredients

• 1 cup teff flour
• 1½ cups warm but not hot water
• 1 pinch of salt
• Oil for frying
• Fermentation starter (optional; see notes)

Procedure

Making injera

1. Mix the flour with the water, and the salt. Add your fermentation starter if using one.
2. Set aside to ferment overnight, or at least 12 hours. There should be bubbles on the surface from fermenting, before you use it.
3. Heat a large, flat pan until it is hot enough to make a droplet of water sizzle. Oil it very lightly, just enough to make the pan shine.
4. Pour or ladle some batter onto the pan, spiralling outwards from the centre. Only a thin layer is required—a little thicker than a crêpe but not by much.
5. As it cooks, the surface of the injera will become covered in holes or pits. When the entire injera has changed colour and the edges start to lift from the pan, remove it and set aside, then pour the next injera and repeat until finished.

Notes, tips and variations

• If you can't get it to ferment by itself, try a good fermentation starter like a teaspoonful of kefir. Baker's yeast alone will not make for good flavour, as bacteria are needed also, but a teaspoonful of yoghurt plus a pinch of yeast might do the trick if you can't get kefir. Note that fermentation starter may contain gluten.
• Traditional injera is made with teff, but if this is difficult to get, it can be made with sorghum or wheat flour.
• Since teff is often quite expensive outside of Africa, it is often mixed with wheat flour to give the injera some of the teff flavour but for less expense. Mix ¼ cup of teff flour with ¾ cup of sorghum or wheat flour, for the recipe above.