I was definitely nervous making food for Ethiopia. I love Ethiopian food and could honestly eat berbere spice in or on anything. But I was apprehensive when it came to injera (a spongy flatbread made from teff flour). It actually turned out pretty okay for a white girl following an online recipe, but I'll get into some of the challenges next.
The first thing I did was prepare the injera batter. I went with an "instant" version rather than fermenting simply because I was scared. I've never fermented anything before! Plus you have to have good planning and start the batter 3-4 days before you want to actually cook it. Fermented injera has a slightly sour taste from the fermentation--similar to a sourdough--which is delicious. Mine did not have that sour taste, but it wasn't bad. The batter included teff flour, water, yeast, and sugar. That mixture sat covered for a little over an hour. I then added more water, salt, vinegar, and baking powder.
Then, the batter is poured into a hot skillet, swirled around to make a circle. The recipe I used said to wait for a few bubbles to appear, then cover with a lid to steam for a minute. I did this for the first few but ended up nixing that step because the liquid on the lid was dripping down and getting the injera soggy. It continues to cook until it's no longer wet and the edges start to curl up a bit.
You don't actually cook it on the other side since it should be cooked all the way through. I got impatient and flipped over a couple that weren't setting in the very center--I think it made them a little crispier and harder to roll up. But the other side is generally more attractive than the top, with all the little spongy holes (or, if you have trypophobia, nightmare-inducing).
The edges of the injera are a little crunchy when you first take it out of the pan, but as it cools, they actually soften so you can easily roll them up. Injera is served on the plate with the other foods scooped on top, and then extra pieces are rolled up and placed on the side. No utensils are used; you simply tear off a piece of the injera and scoop or pinch the food.
I made two dishes to go with the injera. The first is a spicy atakilt wat, which is a stew of cabbage, potato, and carrot. The first step is to cook the onion, then add fat, garlic, and berbere. Generally, a type of spiced ghee is used as the fat, but I just used cooking oil infused with spices through cooking.
I used a little too much berbere in this because sometimes I go overboard with it and I also bought a huge bag of it. I still have a medium sized mason jar plus a spice jar filled with it, but at least I won't run out any time soon.
Once the aromatics cooked down, I added my vegetables, starting with slices of potato and carrot. The most common way to cut the vegetables is probably to cube them, but when I get Ethiopian food locally, the carrots and potatoes are always in longer strips/wedges, so that's what I did. I find it easier to pick them up to eat, too.
Once the carrots and potatoes were mixed around in the spiced oil, I then added the shredded cabbage. All of that got mixed well and then covered to cook until everything was tender. Super easy and flavorful.
For some reason I don't have any pictures of the cooking process for the second dish, kik alicha, which is a split pea stew. It's also simple to make: saute onions, add garlic and spices, then your yellow lentils (aka split peas), and vegetable broth and/or water; cover and simmer until the lentils have fallen apart and the stew has thickened. It's funny how such simple things can be so delicious. This dish is warm and comforting and healthy--loose enough to eat it with a spoon from a bowl, thick enough to eat with your hands via injera.
It's a good thing I had two dishes, because the atakilt wat was so spicy we needed the lightly spiced split peas to balance it out and offer some reprieve from the heat. We ended up eating the leftover atakilt wat with some sour cream mixed in to tone it down some. I can be a little heavy-handed with spices, but I'd rather that than serve and eat bland food! I was pleasantly surprised with how the injera turned out, even without making it the traditional or authentic way. I may try the fermentation method when I make food for Eritrea (next year) since injera is one of their national dishes as well. I think having never made injera before, and not really having a grasp on the actual cooking process made me scared to do two processes I've never done before. But by next year I'll have some more experience under my belt, and will hopefully be a little more organized and less afraid to try it!
Recipes Used: Injera // Atakilt Wat // Kik Alicha + this version (Vegan Richa is Indian, not Ethiopian, but I find her recipes to be simple and easy to follow along--I cross referenced whatever authentic recipes I could find)
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