Ethiopian cuisine is one of my absolute favourites. I love everything about it. I love the wonderful flavours, and the fact that it is a sharing meal so I can try many different dishes. I even love the fact that you basically get to eat with pancake instead of a fork.
-Eating with my fingers is always fun.-
There is only one thing that makes going out for Ethiopian food difficult… the fact that it is pretty darn spicy. At the moment I live with children who seem to melt from the tiniest bit of heat. What is a foodie to do?
The answer, of course, is learn to cook Ethiopian food at home!
The base of all Ethiopian meals is injera. Injera is a spongy sourdough pancake that is made out of teff. Teff is a gluten free seed that has a rich, nutty flavour. With that very brief primer taken care of, let’s launch into the recipe.
Injera -Ethiopian Flatbread
Enjoy Ethiopian food at home! Here are recipes for traditionally fermented Ethiopian injera, shiro wat and cabbage and potato stew.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Sourdough
- Cuisine: Ethiopian
Ingredients
Pre-ferment
- 1 1/2 cups of teff flour
- 1 3/4 cups water
Remaining Ingredients
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg (see notes)
- vegetable oil (for frying)
Instructions
- Mix the teff and water, and leave it somewhere warm to ferment for 12-24 hours. It should develop into a nice bubbly starter pretty quickly.
- When ready to cook, add salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp).
- Heat a non-stick skillet on medium heat and lightly oil.
- Put in a small amount of batter, then turn the skillet around so that it forms a thin pancake (though not as thin as a crepe).
- Cook slowly on one side until it has firmed up. It is traditionally only cooked on one side, and it is supposed to be quite wet and soft.
- Cool, then store rolled up or flat between layers of wax paper to keep them from sticking.
- Serve with Ethiopian dishes on top. Eat by scooping up the stews with bite-size pieces of injera.
Notes
- My starter was frothy within 24 hours. Teff naturally contains a symbiotic yeast, so watch your starter as it may activate very quickly!
- If you can’t find teff or if the teff is very expensive then you can replace it with wheat. Often restaurants will replace up to 1/2 the teff in their bread with wheat flour.
- I found it very hard to make large thin pancakes, because I don’t have an injera pan
. So I just made smaller pancakes in a regular frying pan.
- The egg isn’t traditional, but it really helps the pancakes form. Alternatively, you could replace 1/2 the teff with wheat flour, which will also help.
. So I just made smaller pancakes in a regular frying pan.Keywords: gluten free, crepes, pancakes, traditional, teff, vegan, vegetarian
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