East African Flatbread: Injera

"Injera" is a total part of the food culture in many areas of East Africa, and it is included in every meal. "Injera" is a crepe-like fermented bread used as a "base" for serving food, and also used to scoop up or to pinch off food for eating. It is sort of "pockmarked" on one side from the bubbles that form when the batter is cooking, and the texture is spongy. In East Africa the making of injera is usually more of a 2 or 3 day process, where many, but not all, use ground "teff," a flour made from the small seeds of a grass like plant common in eastern Africa. Teff flour is gluten free and it comes in light to dark colors, so you may see injera that looks like dark rye or buckwheat, or you may see injera that is lighter in color, even pretty much white. In some areas other flour types are used instead of teff, including sorghum flour, which is also gluten free.* The East Africans generally let the initial mix sit for 1 to 3 days to ferment and to acquire a "sour" taste for the completed injera, like sourdough is used as a "starter" for sourdough bread products. Since injera is commonly made with teff flour in Ethiopia, many people keep a "starter" to add to their next batch of injera batter. From what I understand, the starter batter, or sponge, does not typically contain yeast, but since just about all families make injera, I'm sure there are any number of variations to some ingredients and methods. This recipe here is a faster method, and it uses all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, both easily obtained at just about any grocery store, large or small. Teff flour and sorghum flour are available in many countries nowadays, if you want to be more authentic on the Ethiopian side. While this recipe doesn't use teff flour, it is still better than the recipe I used from a cookbook I had when I first made injera in about 1995, which was so bland, I never had the desire to make it again. I can't recall the exact year, but approximately 25 years ago, I visited an Ethiopian restaurant here in Cleveland, but whether they used teff flour, I have no idea. The food was delicious.   

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 package active yeast (1/4 ounce/7g)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups warm (NOT HOT!) water

Add the dry ingredients to a bowl, then gradually mix in the warm water. Use a stick (immersion) blender to make sure the batter is smooth. Or you can put the ingredients into a blender and add 1 1/2 cups of water to start, then gradually add more water until the batter is smooth and thinned. The batter should not be totally thick, nor thin like water, but rather on the order of heavy cream. Let the batter sit (covered) for about 45 minutes. Stir or blend it again to mix it well. Use a non stick skillet. I used a 9 inch skillet, but you can use larger or somewhat smaller. You don't really need any oil or butter, but I did see 2 recipes, out of about 30, use a little oil. Heat the skillet before adding the batter. I used medium high heat, but you can always adjust the setting once you see how the injera cooks. Use a ladle and pour the batter into the center of the pan and immediately tilt and shake the pan to spread the batter out evenly over the bottom of the skillet. Naturally the size of the pan and of your ladle is important here. You DON'T want the injera to be as thick as typical American pancakes, but they shouldn't be the more typical thinness of crepes, either. Once you add the batter and get it evenly distributed, you will see little bubbles form on the top of the batter. Cover the skillet with a lid or with foil, and let the injera cook until the top is set and there is no glistening from wet batter (this will not take very long). The skillet I use does not have a lid with it, but I have the lid a round casserole dish that fits almost perfectly over the skillet; so, improvise if you must. You do not flip injera, so the bottom side will be somewhat browned. In East Africa, injera is used for serving vegetables, stews or meats right on top of the spread out injera. Then, more injera is used to pick up the food when eating. The sauces, meat drippings or liquid part of stews will soak right into the serving injera, so you eat the serving "tray," if you get my drift.  

* Sorghum flour is from a grass plant. Americans may more readily think of "sorghum syrup," often simply referred to as "sorghum," a sweet syrup which is made from the juice extracted from the stalks of sorghum plants. The syrup was strongly associated with parts of the American South for about a century,  from pre Civil War times until the post World War Two era, when its production declined dramatically. It was, and still is, but to a lesser degree than in the past, commonly poured over fried cornmeal mush and grits, or used on biscuits.

WORD HISTORY: 
Hoof-This word has an uncertain ancient history, although it traces back to Indo European "koph," which meant, "hoof," but whether this was an original Indo European form is the question. There are some who feel the original Indo European form's meaning was not "hoof," but rather an action meaning like "beat," that then developed into a noun meaning "hoof," from the notion of the hooves/hoofs beating on the ground. Others feel Indo European may have borrowed the word from Middle Eastern or northeast African languages, where there were similar terms having to do with "animal feet, hooves." Anyway, the Indo European form gave Old Germanic "hofaz," meaning "hoof," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hof" (long "o"). This later became "hufe" and "hoof." When I was a kid, there were Americans who pronounced "hoof" with a long "u" sound, which I "believe" is still the main pronunciation in England and other parts of Britain, and I wouldn't be surprised if some Americans still say it that way, but I haven't heard that pronunciation for quite some time. With other Americans, the pronunciation had softened to something of a short "u," which is now the most used form of pronunciation in the U.S. There were/are similar dual pronunciations for "roof," as I say it as if "rufe," with a long "u," but others said/say the much shorter sounding, "roof"), "woof" and "poof," for example. Also, when I was in school, the plural of "hoof" was "hooves," and it was pronounced with the long "u" sound. In more recent times I generally hear "hoofs," with the short sound, which is also used as a verb for a sort of slang term for "walk," as in, "My car broke down a half mile from home and I had to "hoof" it the rest of the way." Anyway, the other Germanic languages have: German "Huf" (long "u"), Low German Saxon "Hoof," Dutch "hoef," West Frisian "hoof" (seems to be, but I also found "hoef"), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish "hov" and Icelandic "hófur."