If you've ever tried Ethiopian or Eritrean cuisine, you know that the spongy, tangy bread that comes with the meal ?— the injera ?— is just as good as the main event. Mulu Tewelde, an Eritrean native who now lives in South Burlington, shared her recipe for this week's installment of Summer School.
"Injera is a bread from Eritrea and Ethiopia. It's a really spongy and flat bread," says Tewelde, who hosts a monthly Ethiopian Night with her friend Alganesh Michael at ArtsRiot in Burlington. "It's slightly sour on your tongue. We call that the best injera, because it has to be sour. And we serve it almost with every meal."
Tewelde describes the bread as somewhere in between a tortilla and a pancake, and says the ingredients are simple: just water and flour. "No oil, no salt, no dairy," she says.
The trick? Fermentation. Read on for Tewelde's recipe, and enjoy! And to keep tabs on what she and Michael are up to in Burlington, follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Mulu Tewelde's Injera Recipe
"Injera is bread from Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is flat round and spongy bread, served with almost every meal," Tewelde writes. "Injera would usually be made from just teff flour and water where I'm from, but in the United States I blend the teff with other kinds of flours. Teff is a gluten-free flower and gives the bread its slightly sour tang. Teff can be found in local grocery stores and co-ops or ordered online. Injera can be tricky. It is affected by humidity and temperature. But practice makes perfect."
Ingredients:
- 4 cups teff flour
- 2 cups barley flour
- 1 cup corn flour
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 8 cups water
Instructions:
Mix the teff flour with equal parts water in a bowl. Mix the other flours together in a separate bowl with the remaining four cups of water. Cover both bowls and keep at room temperature for two to three days until mixtures begin to bubble. The batter must ferment prior to cooking.
When you're ready to cook, combine the two bowls into one. You may want to skim a little of the surface water off the tops of the bowls before you combine, but reserve this water in case your batter is too thick. You want the batter or dough to be the consistency of crepe or pancake batter.
Heat an electric injera pan or flat non-stick frying pan. Do not grease the pan. Using a ladle or scoop, quickly pour the batter in a spiral motion from the outside of the pan to the inside to fill the entire surface.
You should start to see the top of the injera bubble like a pancake.
Quickly cover with a lid. Cook for one-and-a half to two minutes until the entire surface is bubbly and cooked through. The bottom should not be browned. Remove and set on a plate to cool. Repeat until your batter is gone.
To serve injera, lay it on a plate and ladle your chosen stews and sauces on top. Serve more injera, folded or rolled, on the side and use your injera to scoop up your food. No utensils needed!
