Any tips on making injera?

First time finding ground Ivory Teff in an International Market. Couldn't resist. Now looking at recipes for injera. Seems getting the right degree of fermentation and texture can be tricky, Has anyone made their own injera and what do I need to know ?

Boy, I hope you succeed! It is something I've considered but never tried. There's a restaurant about 45 minutes from here that has an all-Ethiopian staff, and when they deliver the basket of steaming, tangy, soft injera it is a Proustian reaction.

Never tried to make it. Pumpkin is not a big fan so not much encouragement, either.

I have a bag of Bob's teff flour but I haven't summoned up the courage yet to try my hand at making injera. For me the roadblock is the fermentation. Traditional Ethiopian recipes say just mix up the batter and let it sit for 4-5 days, during which wild yeasts will cause the rise. I'm not sure that New England has either the climate or the proper wild yeasts to pull this off. I've also seen an alternative that uses a bit of active dry yeast, dissolved in a bit of warm water, added to the batter, and then left for 4-5 days.

Some recipes recommend that beginners mix some all-purpose flour with the teff, as the mixture is easier to work with than a 100% teff batter.

Be sure to let us know how it goes!

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

This might be nerdy enough for our food geeks, but there's a popular faux injera process that's quick and easy, using wheat flour and baking soda plus club soda to get a bubbly texture that foams up and then sets in an injera-like texture when the thin batter hits griddle or pan in a pancake-like process. I tried it once years ago and found it plenty convincing enough to use at home.

Here's a typical recipe:
https://www.eatright.org/recipes/entree ... era-recipe

[Jenise]

Tried once, blew it, never tried again so I can't be of any help.

Robin, that's interesting!!!

The trick is to get that sour nuance. As with sourdough bread, the wild yeasts/bacteria do the trick well, if you have the proper climate and wild flora. The same problem exists with Indian idli and dosa, whose batters are also fermented with wild yeast for a few days. I can get commercially-made dosa and idli batters at the local Indian grocery. No such source for injera batter, though.

Would sourdough starter be useful for making injera?

-Paul W.