Injera Recipe

By popular demand (meaning two people have asked), I will start posting recipes and instructions for some of the Ethiopian foods I've been making. I'm just a beginner myself, so if you're looking for expert instructions, please continue your search elsewhere! Feel free to leave critiques and suggetions in the comment section :-)

First up is injera, the Ethiopian flat bread used as a platter, plate, and utensil (just tear off a piece and use it to scoop up food). This is most definitely not authentic injera. It’s just an easy, passable version for those with not much time and no sourdough starter. I found this recipe online, and most non-Ethiopians have liked it (we’ll see what Merete thinks when he gets home!). It does not have the sour taste (which is fine by me, that’s not my favorite part).

Also, this is a relatively small amount of batter. If you want to make a larger batch, don’t be tempted to just double or triple the recipe and make it all at once. Take the time to mix the batter in small batches. The reason for this is that the club soda is used to help make the spongy texture, and the longer the batter sits there, the less spongy and “hole-y” the injera are (at least in my experience)

This recipe makes 6 injera using a 9 ½” non-stick pan. This is pretty small for injera, so feel free to use a larger pan if you’d like. I used an electric stove and put it on “3”. At that size and temperature, the injera cooked in 3 ½ minutes. I actually used two pans to make two at a time, and even though I used the same temperature, one pan always produced spongier injera than the other. So I switched around with the pans, covers and burners and figured out it was in fact the burner that made the difference. I have no idea why, but if your injera isn’t very spongy, play around with the temperature a bit until it seems right. There is no need to use oil on the pan if you are using non-stick (not sure how much you’d use if you are using non-stick, but you could try cooking spray). If you are using a different size pan, experiment with the amount of batter and cooking time; just keep in mind that it should be thicker than a crepe and thinner than a pancake, and it’s done when the top is dry and it starts to curl at the edges.

Finally, I have decided that injera is both the singular and plural version of the word. I have no clue if that's correct ;-)

Ingredients
1 cup self-rising flour
¼ cup teff flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup water
¼ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
½ cup club soda

Instructions
1. Combine the self-rising flour, teff flour, and baking powder in mixing bowl. Mix well with electric beater. This makes sure the baking powder is evenly distributed (I do this often with dry ingredients instead of sifting…again, another time saving shortcut that seems to work for me).
2. Add water and mix on high speed until lumps mix well until there are no lumps.
3. When you are ready to start cooking the injera, add the vinegar and club soda, and mix gently with a spoon (you want to keep it nice and bubbly). Again, do this at the last second to preserve as many bubbles as possible. The batter will seem very watery compared to typical pancake batter.
4. Gently scoop out batter using small cup (for 9 ½ “ pan, I used 1/3 cup of batter) and pour onto the pan. Immediately swirl the pan gently until the batter reaches the edges of the pan. Cover the pan loosely (leave an opening) and set your timer. The injera are done when the top is dry and it starts to curl a bit at the edges (honestly I think mine might be too curled, I don’t really remember what they looked like at the restaurant!).
5. Flip or slide the injera onto foil, parchment paper, or something similar to cool. Let it cool to room temperature before you stack them (if you stack them while they are still warm, they will stick together).
6. Storing injera: this section is in progress and will be updated once I’ve figured out if freezing is even a good idea. I made a huge batch today and froze them in stacks of 4 (wrapped in wax paper) and then fit about 4 sets in a gallon freezer bag. I’ll experiment the best way to defrost and reheat and report back. And maybe one day I’ll try some authentic injera (like, after Merete tastes these and makes a “what the heck is this supposed to be???”