* All our Ethiopian baking recipes are here!
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The preferred staple in the Ethiopian and Eritrean diet is engera (pronounced en-jer-a, and sometimes spelled injera), a flat sour-like fermented pancake that is used with "wot", a stew made with spices, meats and pulses, such as lentils, beans and split peas. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, teff is the most common cereal crop used to make engera. Teff is a tiny, round, khaki-colored grain closely resembling millet. Its scientific name is Eragrostis, teff. "Teffa", the Amharic word for "lost", is so named because of teff's small size. It is the smallest grain in the world and often is lost in the harvesting and threshing process because of its size.
Teff contains 2-3 times the iron of wheat or barley. Teff has 14% protein, 3% fat and about 81% complex carbohydrate. The calcium, potassium and other essential minerals are also many times what would be found in an equal amount of other grains.
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:
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.
Stir in the salt, a little at a time, until you can barely detect its taste.
Lightly oil an 8 or 9 inch skillet (or a larger one if you like).
Heat over medium heat.
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.
Cook briefly, until holes form in the injera and the edges lift from the pan. Do not let it brown.
Remove and let cool.
Yields 10 to 12 injera.
Dabo : Categories: Breads
Yield: 1 loaf
1 ts Dry yeast
2 tb Baking powder
3 c Water; lukewarm
2 ea Egg yolks
1 ts Salt
1 tb Sugar
1 tb Corn oil
4 c Flour
Dabo is a special Sabbath bread.
In mixing bowl, dissolve dry yeast and baking powder in the water.
Mix in egg yolks, salt, sugar and oil.
Add the flour and prepare a smooth dough by kneading for 5 minutes.
Let dough rise in a covered bowl at room temperature for about 6
hours. Punch down.
In lightly oiled large round skillet, place the dough.
Cover pan and let dough rise for 1 hour.
Cook it still covered, over gas or electricity on the top of the
stove at low heat for 25-30 mins.
Turn the loaf over and bake on the other side 5 mins more.
Serve at room temperature.
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.
Honey Yeast Bread (Yemarina Yewotet Dabo)
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water (110-115 degrees)
1 egg
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup lukewarm whole milk
6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
4-5 cups all-purpose flour
In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over the warm water. Let stand for 3 minutes, then stir to dissolve. Set the bowl in a warm place for about 5 minutes; mixture should double in volume. If it does not, repeat procedure.
Combine the egg, honey, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a deep bowl, mixing until smooth. Add the yeast mixture, milk, and 5 tablespoons of the melted butter. Beat until well blended. Stir in flour 1/2 cup at a time, until becomes too stiff to stir.
On a lightly floured board, knead the dough, adding a small amount of flour when necessary to keep from sticking. Knead for about 5 minutes. Place dough in a large, greased bowl. cover with a damp cloth and let sit in warm place for about 1 1/2 hours.
Grease a cookie sheet with the remaining tablespoon of butter. Punch down the dough and knead it again for a few minutes. Shape the dough into a round, and place it on the greased sheet. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Let the bread rise again while oven is preheating. Bake the bread for 1 hour, or until the top is crusty and light golden brown.
2 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbl Sugar
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1/4 cup Oil
Water
They will look like flat peanuts, and are served as a snack or with cocktails, and like peanuts, once you start eating them you can't stop.
In a 1-quart bowl mix flour, salt, sugar, cayenne pepper and oil. Knead: together and add WATER, spoonful by spoonful, to form a stiff dough. Knead dough for 5 minutes longer.
Tear: off a piece the size of a golf ball.
Roll: it out with palms of hands on a lightly floured board into a long strip 1/2 inch thick.
Snip: into 1/2-inch pieces with scissors.
Spread: about the handful of the pieces on an ungreased 9-inch frying pan
(or enough to cover bottom of pan). Cook over heat until uniformly light brown on all sides, stirring up once in a while as you go along.
Continue until all are light brown.
NOTES : For "teaspoon", the original recipe says tsb, whereas the
"tablespoon" ingredients say Tbs...
Ethiopian Ambasha
1 tbl Active dry yeast
1/4 cup Warm water
2 tbl Ground coriander
1 tsp Ground cardamom
1/2 tsp White pepper
1 tsp Ground fenugreek
2 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup Lukewarm water
5 cup Unbleached flour
1 tbl Cayenne
2 tbl Oil
1/4 tsp Ground ginger
1 pch Ground cloves
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
Dissolve the yeast in warm water for 10 minutes. Add the coriander, cinnamon, white pepper, fenugreek, salt, oil and lukewarm water, and stir well. Slowly add the flour until a mass forms. On a floured board, knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it is smooth and tiny bubbles form.
(note: this recipe makes a stickier dough than usual)
Reserve a 1-inch piece of dough. With floured hands spread the dough out on an ungreased pizza pan. Using a sharp knife, score the dough in a design similar to the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Place the reserved ball of dough in the center of the scored dough. Cover and let rise one hour.
Bake at 350F for an hour or until golden brown. Combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl. While still warm brush the bread with topping.
Yield: 1 16-inch loaf.
Funkaso: Millet Pancakes
2 cup Millet flour,buy a health food store
1 1/4 cup -Lukewarm water
Margarine, or oil
Sugar, to taste
1 pch -Salt
"The batter for these pancakes needs to stand for about 4 hours (! a.m.)
before you start cooking. It helps if you have a flat pancake griddle, but if you do not then use a heavy frypan and a good "bendy" utensil to turn and lift the funkaso. They are similar to (although smaller than) the Ethiopian injera which are made from a millet-relative called teff and they can be served with Ethiopian dishes such as the wars."
1. Sift flour into a bowl and gradually pour in the warm water, stirring and mixing well as you do so to make a smooth, runny paste. Set aside for 4 hours.
2. After this, heat the margarine or oil in a shallow pan or griddle plate. While it is warming. beat the batter with a spoon.
3. When the margarine or oil is hot, ladle or pour enough batter in the pan to make a saucer-sized pancake and cook until crsip. You can turn it once if you like but it is not essential.
Remove and keep warm.
4. Cook the others in the same way and serve to accompany a main dish, or a snack with honey, or chutney.
