Go to... recipes books Art & Food intro amhari berbere dorowat greens injera pea salad wet wine wot zilzil HIM mailing list Sellassie Cyber U culture dir. food directory advertising? webmaster * abysinianmarket.com: A one-of-a-kind super grain that can be ordered pre-spiced! Now anyone can EASILY bake delicious breads anytime in there own home – no special equipment required! Teff can be ordered plain or pre-spiced with coriander, black onion, or cardamom. The simple recipe is available on the recipe section of this website. Teff is called a super grain because it is a nutritional powerhouse. It has an iron content of two to three times that of wheat, barley, or grain sorghum. Research shows it has 14% protein 3% fat, 81% complex carbohydrates. The calcium, potassium, copper and other essential minerals are also many times the concentration in teff then in other grains. Teff is the only grain to have symbiotic yeast according to Fred C. Meyers, of the national arboretum in Washington DC. Teff is gluten free for people with gluten intolerance. Anyone can make incredibly wonderful tasting bread from Teff or use it in cereal. Ethio Diet (injera)

injera

Ethiopian meals are eaten without utensils. Instead, injera, a soft spongy pancake-like bread is used. Injera is made in large circles which are used in two ways for the meal. First, one or two injera are placed on the bottom of a large tray. Various stews are spooned on top in small mounds. To eat, pieces are torn off of extra injera and used to scoop up the food. After the injera are consumed, the injera bread that lines the tray is eaten. This is the tastiest part, because the injera on the plate has soaked up the juice and flavor of each stew.

Injera is made from a fermented sourdough batter. In this way, it has a slightly tangy flavor and a wonderful light and airy texture. It is not dense at all. It is traditionally made from a grain called teff, a staple in Ethiopia. Teff flour can be found in most health food stores. If you can locate packaged injera from a local grocer, buy that; it is authentic and delicious. You can usually get about 7 injera in a package for 5 bucks. Most recipes I've found ask for wheat flour instead of teff and seem like a ton of trouble to make. The following, however, is the most authentic looking recipe I've come across.

The injera sits directly on the plate (usually a round enameled tray) and is covered with delicious stews. The items are usually placed symmetrically around a central item. The stews are eaten with other injera which are kept on a side plate or napkin, usually served folded into quarters

What You Need:

• 3/4 cup teff, ground fine (the teff may be ground either in a flour mill or in a blender after moistening in 3 1/2 cups water).
• salt
• sunflower or other vegetable oil

What You Do:

1. Mix ground teff with 3 1/2 cups 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. The fermenting mixture should be the consistency of pancake batter.
2. Stir in the salt, a little at a time, until you can barely detect its taste.
3. Lightly oil an 8 or 9 inch skillet (or a larger one if you like).
4. Heat over medium heat.
5. 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.
6. Cook briefly, until holes form in the injera and the edges lift from the pan. Do not let it brown.
7. Remove and let cool.

Yields 10 to 12 injera.

From "With the Armies of Menelik II" by Alexander Bulatovich:

The General came to meet me and invited me to his home where dinner was already prepared for us. We sat on spread carpets and in front of us servants stretched a wide curtain that hid us from outside eyes. One of the ashkers brought a copper wash-stand of intricate form (with the brand of a Moscow factory), and we, in accordance with Abyssinian custom, washed our hands before the meal. One of the cooks, a beautiful young Galla girl, having washed her hands and having rolled the sleeves of her shirt to the elbow, kneeled in front of our basket and from little pots began to take out on slices of injera (a flat cake) all kinds of foods and to put them on the bread which was spread out on the basket. What an array of foods: hard-boiled eggs cooked in some unusually sharp sauce, and ragout of mutton with red pepper, and chicken gravy with ginger, and tongue, and ground or scraped meat -- all abundantly seasoned with butter and powdered with pepper and spices -- and cold sour milk and sour cream... In the corners of the fire in front of us, cut into little pieces, tebs meat was roasting. And the chief of the slaughter-house held over our basket a huge piece of beef. We ate with our hands, tearing off little petals of injera and collecting with them large amounts of all sorts of foods. My mouth burned from the quantity of pepper. Tears came to my eyes. My sense of taste was dulled. And we devoured everything indiscriminately, cooling our mouths, from time to time, with sour cream or by drinking a wonderful mead -- tej -- from little decanters wrapped in little silk handkerchiefs.

When we were full, they called the officers of the Fitaurari and my ashkers. They sat in close circles around ten baskets with injera, over which servants held large pieces of raw meat. Wine bearers served mead to the diners in large horn glasses. All ate decorously and silently.

(c)2004 [ 890 ]

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