Injera Food

INJERA

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast and honey in 1/4 cup of the water. Allow to proof and add the remainder of the water and the millet flour. Stir until smooth and then cover. Allow to stand at room temperature for 24 hours.
• Stir the batter well and mix in the baking soda.
• Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Pour about 1/3 cup of the batter into the pan in a spiral pattern to cover the bottom of the pan evenly. Tilt the pan to quickly even out the batter. Cover the pan and allow to cook for about 1 minute. The bread should not brown but rather rise slightly and very easy to remove. It is cooked only on one side. This top should be slightly moist. Remove to a platter and cool. Stack the cooked breads on a plate.

QUICK INJERA

Steps:

• 1. Put the all-purpose flour, rye flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor and pulse until blended. Pour the club soda into a measuring cup and add the vinegar. Pour the liquid into the processor as it is running and mix until the batter is very smooth. Let sit for 10 minutes.
• 2. Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray the skillet with a thin coating of nonstick spray. Make the injera the way you make a crepe: Remove the skillet from the heat and tilt the edge farther from you down toward the floor. Pour 1/3 cup of the batter in a pool slightly off-center further from you, and then quickly swirl the pan so that the batter covers the entire surface. Place the pan back on the heat, cover with a lid and cook until the edges start pulling from the pan and the top is shiny and slightly dry, 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Peel the injera from the pan and transfer to a plate, top-side up. Serve cool.

INJERA

Steps:

• Combine the teff flour and active dry yeast in a large bowl. Add 2 cups lukewarm water and whisk or, more traditionally, use your hand to mix everything together, making sure the mixture is absolutely smooth with no lumps. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until the mixture is bubbly and tastes sour like tangy yogurt, 36 to 48 hours. (It will start bubbling and rising in a matter of hours, but it can take anywhere from 36 to 48 hours to achieve a noticeable level of sourness, which is key to the flavor of the injera; see Cook's Note.) After about 36 hours, begin tasting the mixture; this will help you determine when it's just right and will help prevent it from souring too much.
• At this point, the batter will look separated and watery on top. If you shake the bowl a little, you should see some bubbles rising to the top. Add the self-rising flour and up to 1 cup of water a little at a time. Whisk or use your hand to thoroughly combine into a smooth, thin, pourable mixture with about the consistency of a slightly thicker crepe batter. Cover again and let sit for 1 hour.
• Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat for a few minutes. Have a lid for the skillet and a wire baking rack nearby. Whisk 1 teaspoon salt into the batter (it will bubble up). Pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the skillet, tilting and swirling to coat with a thin layer of batter. The batter should spread quickly and easily. (If it's too thick, whisk in a little more water.) Within a matter of seconds, you should start seeing small holes forming and the surface darkening as it cooks from the outside towards the center. When the injera is about 3/4 of the way cooked, cover the skillet and let steam for 1 minute. The injera is cooked when the edges are dry and lifting up from the pan. Carefully run a spatula underneath and transfer to the baking rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining batter.
• You can stack the injera only when they are completely cooled; otherwise, they will stick to each other. Wrap the stack of cooled injera with a dry, clean cloth or paper towels to keep them from drying out until ready to serve. Serve at room temperature, or microwave for 30 seconds to heat through.

INJERA (ETHIOPIAN SOUR FLATBREAD)

Steps:

• Repeat until all of the batter is used, spraying the pan with cooking spray as necessary.

INJERA (ETHIOPIAN TEFF BREAD)

Steps:

• Mix 1/2 cup white teff flour and brown teff flour together in a bowl. Add 1 cup water and whisk well. Pour mixture into a glass container large enough to hold 3 times the original volume. Cover with cheesecloth or other breathable fabric to keep out dust; do not seal with plastic wrap as air circulation is vital. Leave covered container in a draft-free environment; the mixture needs air to be circulated in order to ferment. Stir batter 2 times over 24 hours.
• Check for bubbles and possibly an increase in volume after 24 hours; there may also be a slightly tangy and sour smell. When you notice these things, add 1 tablespoon white teff flour and 1 tablespoon water to the batter and whisk well. Check in a few hours to see if bubbles have again formed, mixture has increased in volume, and the pungent smell is still evident; if so, the batter is ready and you can skip to the cooking process (step 5).
• Leave batter to rest another 12 hours if the mixture has not begun to form or smell sour after the first 24 hours; stir once during this time. Check to see if bubbles have formed, mixture has increased in volume, and a pungent smell is evident; if so, proceed with step 4.
• Mix together 2 tablespoons white teff flour and 2 tablespoons water in a bowl, making sure there are no lumps. Add mixture to the batter, whisking well. Wait a few hours; batter should be bubbly with a noticeable increase in volume and a pungent but fragrant smell, indicating it is ready to be cooked.
• Heat an 8-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil. Pour a scant 1/2 cup batter slowly and steadily into the hot pan in a circular motion from outside to inside. Cover the pan completely in a spiral without swirling. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, allowing steam to cook the top of the bread, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove from pan with spatula and transfer to a plate; cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter.

INJERA

Steps:

• Combine flour and baking soda in a large bowl.
• Add club soda, stir well to form a thin batter.
• Heat a large well-seasoned or non-stick griddle until hot. Brush lightly with oil or ghee.
• Using a large cup or ladle, begin on the outside of the griddle and pour in a circle around the inside edges until the center is filled. Quickly tilt the griddle back and forth to fill in any holes and spread evenly. As if making crepes.Cook for 1-2 minutes, until surface is spongy and filled with tiny air bubbles. Do not flip the bread - just slide off griddle onto a large plate. Continue cooking injera until batter is used, transferring them to the plate as they are done. Arrange them around the outside edges of the plate so that the centers overlap. Serve immediately with a meat or vegetable stew.

AUTHENTIC INJERA (AKA ETHIOPIAN FLAT BREAD)

Steps:

• Mix ground teff with the water and let stand in a bowl covered with a dish towel at room temperature until it bubbles and has turned sour; This may take as long as 3 days, although I had success with an overnight fermentation; The fermenting mixture should be the consistency of a very thin pancake batter.
• Stir in the salt, a little at a time, until you can barely detect its taste.
• Lightly oil an 8 or 9 inch skillet (or a larger one if you like); Heat over medium heat.
• Pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the skillet; About 1/4 cup will make a thin pancake covering the surface of an 8 inch skillet if you spread the batter around immediately by turning and rotating the skillet in the air; This is the classic French method for very thin crepes; Injera is not supposed to be paper thin so you should use a bit more batter than you would for crepes, but less than you would for a flapjack pancakes.
• Cook briefly, until holes form in the injera and the edges lift from the pan; Do not let it brown, and don't flip it over as it is only supposed to be cooked on one side.
• Remove and let cool. Place plastic wrap or foil between successive pieces so they don't stick together.
• To serve, lay one injera on a plate and ladle your chosen dishes on top (e.g., a lovely doro wat or alicha). Serve additional injera on the side. Guests can be instructed to eat their meal without utensils, instead using the injera to scoop up their food.