Yes, I did it!
Finally I decided to make injera at home, and the experience was quite good. I still have to learn more and keep practicing, but if I could do it… anyone can.
I don’t like cooking, so my skills are not very good. I do it when I have no choice and mostly just simple meals that won’t take much time or effort, so injera was definitely out of my menu, unless I can buy it someplace…
Last week I went to buy some at an Ethiopian market close to home, but when I got there I had the unpleasant surprise of finding the store closed… forever.
So, no more injera for now until I can find another place, I said…
But once at home I looked on the internet for a recipe, and there are many out there, some of them seem to be great but too time consuming for me, for example this one. Probably it’s the most “proper” way to make it, but as I said before: I don’t like to cook!
I found simpler recipes, some of them TOO simple, and then decided to try something in the middle, what could happen anyway?
Injera not good = Garbage. No harm done!
The one I ended up choosing is easy and it only takes about 4 to 5 days to have the injera batter ready to cook. It serves 4 to 6 people, and you’ll be finished cooking in just 20 minutes. Sounds good to me!
You’ll need 2 cups teff flour, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 5 cups of luke warm water. You can buy teff in a store like New Seasons, or Whole Foods or if you can’t find any of those near you, you can find teff online at Amazon or The Teff Company. I don’t know if supermarkets in Europe have it. Here in Oregon, since we are a “green” state, we have a local seller, Bob’s Red Mill, that specializes in all kind of natural grains so teff is available in any regular supermarket like Safeway in the organic section. The “real” injera is made with 100% teff flour, but almost nobody does it here that way, because teff is a low gluten grain and it takes forever to ferment, so most of the restaurants in the US, use 50% teff, 50% wheat, some of them probably up to 75% teff, but no more than that.
Once you have all the ingredients, mix well the two flours and the salt in a bowl and then add the warm water slowly, stirring until everything is well mixed with a wooden spoon. Cover with a paper towel or a cotton cloth and let it stand there until the next day. Then for the next 3 to 4 following days gently agitate the mixture every morning. You will see bubbles on the surface, this is definitely good, the injera mixture is fermenting. You will also start smelling the characteristic sour smell of this food.
The 4th or 5th day the mix is ready to be cooked. Mix it all together once more, heat a large pan lightly oiled and then add the batter in a spiral motion from the outside to the inside, not too thin, not too thick and then cover. In about 30 seconds you will see the steam rising and bubbles in the surface, the injera is ready! Remove the injera (you have to cook it one side only!) with something flat and put it on a plate. Voila!
If you have an electric crepe maker, it’s even better, but make sure to cover the injera when you are cooking it.
My injera wasn’t perfect, but it tasted good, and the “expert” at home, Feromsa, approved! You will have to adjust the heat (medium worked best for me), or maybe the quantity of batter you put on the surface of the pan, so it’s a kind of a trial and error procedure. After starting with a big pan, I decided to change it for a small one, because it was easier to remove the injera, more like a pancake, just turn it up side down and it will fall into the plate, while with the bigger one, I had to use a spatula and sometimes I ended up breaking all the injera due to the borders of the pan getting in the way of the lifting.
I definitely will do it again!
Here are some photos:
Note that the injera can be more light or dark colored depending on the teff flour you use.
I can’t believe that I’m giving cooking instructions Me!…
OMG!
AliciA





















6 users commented in " Making Injera at home "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWow, you’re so brave. And the best thing, you’ve encouraged me to try, I don’t know when, because maybe I won’t be able to find teff flavour her in Spain, but certainly I will try.
A big hugh!!
I’ve been wanting to try this and now I know I will. What did you make to serve it with - did you do a wot? I’m looking for a good simple doro wot recipe. I have berbere at home and I also ordered shiro - which I have no idea what to do with.
I did order injera online and my 6 yo approved. My husband bought some at a restaurant in Richmond and neither the 3 yo or 6 yo would eat it.
Thanks for the instructions!
Terri
Mom to Nebyat (God’s messenger or prophet) and Jetu (as best I can discern - wet or fertile soil from which much can grow).
I had some frozen leftovers of the split pea stew ( I think it’s called alicha wot) from the last time I bought injera and also some lentil sauce, but next time I will try to cook them myself or maybe some meat sauce. We don’t like food too spicy, but I think you can adjust the recipe, ginger if you like it mild, berbere if you like it more spicy…
it looks a lot like a ‘panqueque’ - have you tried it with dulce de leche? i’ll try to find teff flour here and i’ll definitely try
It doesn’t taste good with dulce de leche (milk caramel) because the injera is very sour and it goes better with spicy foods.
[...] it wasn’t a real match, but it was close… It was me fighting cooking injera again. I prepared the batter about 5 days ago, and yesterday I tried to cook some injera for lunch [...]
Leave A Reply