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| Injera |
Injera is a flatbread eaten in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries. It is made with teff flour. Teff is a tiny round grain that is grown in 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. A period of fermentation gives it an airy, bubbly texture, and also a sour taste.
Ingredients
- 1 cup teff flour
- 1½ cups water (warm - but not hot)
- a pinch of salt
- oil for frying
- optional: fermentation starter (see notes). Note that fermentation starter may contain gluten.
- Mix the flour with the water, and the salt. Add your fermentation starter if using one (see notes).
- Set aside to ferment overnight, or at least 12 hours. There should be bubbles on the surface from fermenting, before you use it.
- 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.
- Pour or ladle some batter onto the pan, spiralling outwards from the centre. Only a thin cover is required, a little thicker than a crêpe but not by much.
- 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.
- If you cannot get it to ferment by itself, try a good fermentation starter like a teaspoonful of kefir. Bakers 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 cannot get kefir.
- Traditional injera is made with teff, however 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.
Time: ferment: 12-24 hours
cook: 5 minutes per injera