Who has made it? How hard is it to make? Are there any hacks or tips? We have a lovely lady in town who makes Ethiopian food and has published a cookbook. A friend has a copy and I grabbed a couple of recipes. But unless I can figure out how to make the injera, which the author says is particularly time consuming and tricky, then I’ll have to keep buying it even after I can passably make the other dishes. And I gladly will frequent her restaurant anyway. But sometimes it’s nice to know how to do a thing.
I’ve made injera a few times. I didn’t find it particularly tricky but it does take advance planning as you need at least 2 days for the batter to ferment. This is a picture I posted on WFD July 2020. I used Bob’s Red Mill Teff Flour which I found when looking for semolina flour at the height of the pandemic. I’m guessing teff was/is less popular than semolina.
The Sprout and I were just talking about how we (meaning me) need to make some injera soon. We had some really good injera chips and she thinks it wold be fun to try and make them.
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I’ve not heard of it. Interesting.
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It’s delicious, and spongy in texture - perfect for mopping up sauces. I had it with doro wat, made by a coworker from Ethiopia once - all very tasty.
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Several years ago when I first started making goat stew from a Kenyan friend’s recipe I ran into comments about injera and found this recipe.
First, sorry I never made it; I don’t recall now if I just got distracted and forgot, but I also think I was a bit intimidated.
But I did read through the recipe and the details in the blog post, and most of the comments (there are now several hundred). There’s a lot of troubleshooting and “how-to” advice in the blog post itself and also in the comments that you might find useful.
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You’ve given me hope! I certainly have the time to let something sit while I ignore it 
I will be slightly sad that I can get them to come out flying saucer size, but I’ll live with that. I can’t do it with a crepe either… What kind of pan did you use? It looks to me very much like a pancake in terms of batter and cooking, just one you cook a couple days after mixing?
Doro wat is my plan for today. I made the stewed cabbage and stewed carrot/potato yesterday. I’ll also be buying injera from our nice Ethiopian lady later today!
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I also looked up a recipe once (probably the one in her cookbook), got intimidated, and left it for another day.
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I am not all that partial to complicated recipes so if had been to much I never would have even tried. I wish I could remember what recipes I used but I don’t.
As I recall I used either an 8’’ crepe pan or cast iron griddle (which is how I make pancakes) as the batter was somewhere between a crepe and a pancake. You should definitely try it. I’d be happy to help taste test.
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Meron, the person who made it for our group must have substituted white flour - it was still delicious. And I think she said to use the injera as a plate on which to put the doro wat, but I can’t remember if we tore it into manageable pieces or used the whole disc - thinking it was torn pieces.
I just picked up my injera and the lovely proprietor offered to share her ferment with me the next time I come if I bring a jar. Now if only I understood the method - she was trying to say you use it like a starter, but there was a big of a language barrier. I got that she added it to a threesome flour mix of teff, rice, and sorghum. But proportions of flour to starter and method after that were somewhat beyond what we could communicate to each other. I may just take her up on her offer and play with it. As long as I keep some starter, there can be multiple experiments…
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How generous of her to share starter! That sounds like a good plan on your part; I’ll see if I can locate any information/recipes/procedures as well. BTW, Penzey’s has a delicious Berbere spice mix. Not that I have much to compare it to though. Anxious to hear of your experimentations when it happens.
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It was part of a CH DOTM, so I made it then. It wasn’t difficult, except I threw out my first batch because I decided that it had spoiled. It was actually just fermenting, as it should.
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This. The ferment is the starter that you add flour to when you are ready to use it a la a sour dough starter. Luckily, you can make your own starter in just a couple of days unlike sour dough. That’s where the advanced planning comes in.
Yes, I grabbed a recipe yesterday and they had 2 side by sides of injera batter that had just flour and water, and one with yeast added. The former, after 5 days, looked sketch. But they said it’s likely fine, and just pour off the liquid and top scum layer. One of these days… I need to get to a store and find me some teff.
So if I use it like a starter, then I should also be discarding and feeding it? And since it’s not really a risen baked dough, how long would you “proof” it after combining flour and water with ferment? I assume that you add relatively little ferment for each injera batch? That’s the thing about no recipe…the recipes I’ve looked at (not too many) don’t use this technique - they assume you will use up the whole batch and not create a ferment that you keep adding new flour to.
As I recall - and I can barely remember what I had for breakfast today - I made enough of the fermented teff batter for one batch, and added additional flour when I was ready to make the actual injera. I’m sorry if I confused you with the comparison to a sour dough starter. I like that you don’t have leftovers.
I bought mine online.
Teff? I think I’ve seen it here and there in the local stores. I just need to get to the right store…
Yes, teff. I’m sure you can get it somewhere locally, but for me it was quicker to just order it and save myself a search-by-foot.
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