# Ethiopean Sourdough Bread - Injera - Wild Fermentations!



## pdilley (24/5/09)

You have your Ethiopian Mead (T'ej) all brewed up and ready to go, now you need some authentic yummy food to go with it!

The basis of all Ethiopian food is a bread called Injera. It is essentially a large sourdough pancake. The natural wild yeast fermentation removes the harmful vitamin and nutrient blocking enzymes in our modern Western White and Grain breads, the same way that the sour wild fermentation breaks down Rye removing the harmful enzymes there and releasing the digestibility of the grains in traditional Finnish Rye breads still made today. Its us in the West who have lost the concept and suffer accordingly in our diets because of it.

Here we see that Injera is a liquid batter like thin pancake batter that is poured onto a large hot skillet. We don't have this so in the West, we use a large frying pan and low heat to accomplish the same thing but with smaller injera breads.




Now you are going to mess up the first few times you make Injera because you just need to get the rhythm of the technique down. Once down you will find it is just a piece of piss to make. Similar to your first attempt at making pancakes, you just need to stick with a it a few times and you will be making top quality injera in no time!



The trick is to pour the batter from the outside inwards. Because we use a frying pan over low heat, you can experiment with doing this off the flame if you think your pan is too hot. You can also put a lid over the fry pan after pouring so you can capture the steam to cook the nooks and crannies on top of the injera. You will need to experiment to get your own perfect technique down with the kitchen gear you have.




When you are done you will have a sourdough pancake, moist and slightly elastic to the pull before it breaks off into nice chunks ready to scoop up hearty and spicy meat stews or veggie stews if you prefer. Close up of cooked injera.



As you cook injera after injera, you can roll them up to keep them nice and hot before bringing them out to the table.



Now you can make one large injera. This is the base upon which you scoop all the stews and goodies to eat. A large tin pizza tray will suffice if you can not find a large enough plate. The injera will soak up all the spicy stew juices and you simply tear off bread with spicy stew and eat it with your hands. The ultimate yummy finger food!
(and yes, a bottle of Mead, what else but honey wine with your meal!).



Coffee originally comes from Ethiopia but I'm omitting that from this post. You'll have to do your own research into raw beans roasted in front of you and brewed with spices!

Simply pass around the basket of rolled injera and tear off pieces and dig in! When done you can eat the injera at the bottom of the plate with the stew juices soaked into it. The plate is cleaned and SWMBO is happy!

-------

Injera is made from ancient grains, usually Teff ground into flour, whose name means "lost" because if you drop it on the ground you have no hope in hell of finding it again!



I don't think you are going to find Teff, so the recipe I have is for easy making of Injera in the west with a mixture of wheat flour and sorghum. You can get sorghum flour in the health food shop if you do not have an Ethiopian store near you. I am lucky that I do, and if you don't your nose is missing out on a lot of yummy spice smells in the air when you walk into an Ethiopian store. I also have two Ethiopian restaurants but being rare, they charge a fortune for a single meal which is ironic given that this is peasant food 

The wheat injera uses a mixture of Sorghum.




Here you have a choice of Red Sorghum Flour or White Sorghum Flour in your health food store. Red has a heartier flavour and White is what you will traditionally get at a restaurant in the West. You can also blend your Red and White if you wish.

-------

Recipe

2 Cups Sorghum Flour
3 Cups of Self-Rising Flour
Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter (if you don't have one handy make one or in an emergency I won't be upset if you use a tiny pinch of packet yeast)
Water to thin pancake batter consistency.

Let it sit covered with a cloth for 2 to 3 days until it is bubbly (has lots of eyeballs in Ethiopian). You may need to let it sit longer to sour if you didn't use a sourdough starter or if the weather is colder which slows down fermentation.


Cooking

You need a large flat frying pan.
Use low heat, not high heat.
Pour the injera batter around the outside of the pan
Move the pan around in the air until the surface is covered
When the injera looks like the hole sponge (like crumpets) you can cover the pan for seconds with a lit until the steam is captured and cooks any wet areas on top.
Remove from pan and roll up and place in a basket to keep warm as you cook the rest of the injera for the meal.


EDIT: Until you get some Ethiopian Meat Stews or Veggie Stew recipes, you can easily just stop by your local Indian Restaurant and pick up some spicy Indian curries. It is similar to Ethiopian spicy stews enough to get you going with your first few meals with Injera until you start cooking Ethiopian meals to go with your yummy new sour dough bread!

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


----------



## Airgead (25/5/09)

I love those Ethiopian pancakes. They are the tastiest thing ever.

I became addicted to Ethiopian food after a trip to Canberra. Did you know that there are three Ethiopian restaurants in Canberra... and none at all in the rest of the country?

Until someone starts one up in Sydney my addiction will have to be satisfied with whatever I can cook myself and the occasional trip to Canberra.

I'll definitely give these a go.

Cheers
Dave


----------



## brettprevans (25/5/09)

Airgead said:


> Did you know that there are three Ethiopian restaurants in Canberra... and none at all in the rest of the country?
> Cheers
> Dave



theres at least 2 in melbourne:
- Harambe Ethiopian Restaurant Footscray 
- Abesha ethiopian restaurant and bar - Footscray

I think ive eaten at Harambe. but it was years ago and i was fairly blind that night so dont remember a lot.


----------



## Adamt (25/5/09)

At least one in Adelaide too... gee what a backwater Sydney must be!

As a kid that place used to be the brunt of all jokes: "What do they serve there? Dirt?" But after seeing this, I may pop in there some time.


----------



## bum (25/5/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> theres at least 2 in melbourne:
> - Harambe Ethiopian Restaurant Footscray
> - Abesha ethiopian restaurant and bar - Footscray



There is a _fantastic_ one in Dandenong called Gibe. It is fantastic and insanely cheap too. First time I went we ordered 5 mains and a few beers and it came in at $45. Ridiculous! 

But getting back on topic for a sec - yeah, Injera is pretty great. Not the best thing ever on its own but it makes you keep eating way after you've had enough as part of the meal. Love it.


----------



## Thirsty Boy (25/5/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> theres at least 2 in melbourne:
> - Harambe Ethiopian Restaurant Footscray
> - Abesha ethiopian restaurant and bar - Footscray
> 
> I think ive eaten at Harambe. but it was years ago and i was fairly blind that night so dont remember a lot.




Go there for the beers as well ... top notch stout the Ethiopians make (lager not so good) and it comes in really cool stepped stubbies.

Its the Hurrar Hakim stout that I liked - its bloody weird and I dont know if I'd call it a stout, but I liked it.

The Injera are great, tangy and tasty - I wish they wouldn't make you eat with your hands though, its fun for about 30 seconds and then I just wanted a fork.


----------



## pdilley (25/5/09)

bum said:


> There is a _fantastic_ one in Dandenong called Gibe. It is fantastic and insanely cheap too. First time I went we ordered 5 mains and a few beers and it came in at $45. Ridiculous!
> 
> But getting back on topic for a sec - yeah, Injera is pretty great. Not the best thing ever on its own but it makes you keep eating way after you've had enough as part of the meal. Love it.



In Canberra, its insanely expensive, you can have a meal at an Ethiopian restaurant in Dickson for two and walk out $90 poorer quite easily.

All the more reason to learn to cook your own 

Dave, next time you are down go to the ?Southlands? or what I know as the Mawson Shopping Centre, in Mawson, ACT. There you get the Ethiopian store with all the spices and ingredients to make your own Injera.

Ethiopian food is good and cheap in most of the world, so Canberra is an oddity. As an option you can get a small serve lunch meal at the Bus Depot Market on Sundays from the same owner as one of the restaurants. A lunch serve of spicy beef wat (stew) with injera is $10.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


----------

