Beyaynetu: Meal consisting of injera and several kinds of Wat (food)>wat or tsebhi (stew) is typical of Ethiopian cuisine.| type = Flatbread or pancake

BOOK

, Stanley P.
, Cauvain
, Linda S.
, Young
, The ICC Handbook of Cereals, Flour, Dough & Product Testing: Methods and Applications
, 2009
, DEStech Publications, Inc.
, 9781932078992
, 216
, Injera is the fermented pancake-like flatbread, which originated in Ethiopia.
,books.google.com/books?id=F5Yu_eT7-4MC&pg=PA216, }}| region = East Africa| national_cuisine = | creator = | year = | mintime = | maxtime = | served =

Teff flour (or sometimes wheat, barley, millet, sorghum, Maize>corn, or rice flour)| minor_ingredient =

Gram>g| calories = 131

Injera (, {{IPA|am|É¨ndÊ’É™ra|}}; ; ) is a sour fermented pancake-like flatbread with a slightly spongy texture, traditionally made of teff flour. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera is a staple. Injera is central to the dining process in Amhara community, like bread or rice elsewhere and is usually stored in the mesob.BOOK, Shinn, David, Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia, Scarecrow Press, 198,www.google.ca/books/edition/Historical_Dictionary_of_Ethiopia/ep7__RWqq4IC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=mesob+harari&pg=PA198&printsec=frontcover, JOURNAL, Lyons, Diane, D’ Andrea, A. Catherine, September 2003, Griddles, Ovens, and Agricultural Origins: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Bread Baking in Highland Ethiopia, American Anthropologist

issue = 3

doi = 10.1525/aa.2003.105.3.515, 3566902, BOOK, Mekonnen, Yohannes, Ethiopia: the Land, Its People, History and Culture,books.google.com/books?id=kSgmwugWCGMC&pg=PA362, 29 January 2013, Yohannes Mekonnen, 978-1-4823-1117-4, 362,

Ingredients

{{further|Eragrostis tef}}Traditionally, injera is made with just two ingredients: teff flour and water. Teff flour is ground from the grains of Eragrostis tef, also known as teff, a cereal crop from the Ethiopian Highlands.JOURNAL, Jones, Wilbert, 2010, A Taste of Ethiopian Cuisine, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, 55â€“56, Teff production is limited to certain middle elevations with adequate rainfall and is a low-yield crop,BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=-4tlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA341, The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop, Bart, Minten, Seyoum, Taffesse, Alemayehu, Petra, Brown, 19 July 2018, Intl Food Policy Res Inst, 9780896292833, en, so it is relatively expensive for the average farming household. Many farmers in the Ethiopian highlands grow their own subsistence grains, so wheat, barley, corn, or rice flour are sometimes used to replace the teff content. Teff seeds are graded according to color, used to make different kinds of injera: nech (white), key or quey (red), and sergegna (mixed). When teff is not available, injera is made by fermenting a variety of different grains, including barley, millet, and sorghum.MESOB ACROSS AMERICA: ETHIOPIAN FOOD IN THE U.S.A.> LAST = KLOMAN

PUBLISHER = IUNIVERSE, 2010, New York, Teff, however, is the preferred grain for making injera, primarily because of its sensory attributes (color, smell, taste). Teff flour is gluten-free.

Preparation

(File:How to make injera in d.markos,Ethiopia.jpg|thumb|Batter is poured rapidly in a spiral from the outside inwards. Debre Markos, Ethiopia.)To make injera, teff flour is mixed with water. The fermentation process is started by adding ersho, a clear, yellow liquid that accumulates on the surface of fermenting teff flour batter and is collected from previous fermentations. The aerobic microbial flora of ersho contains spores of Bacillus species (unable to grow at the low pH of 3.5) and several yeasts (in order of abundance): Candida milleri, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Pichia naganishii and Debaromyces hansenii.JOURNAL, Ashenafi, M., Microbial flora and some chemical properties of ersho, a starter for teff (Eragrostis tef) fermentation, World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology, 10, 69â€“73, 10.1007/BF00357567, 24420890, 1994, 1, 25062764, The mixture is then allowed to ferment for an average of two to three days, giving it a mildly sour taste.

Making

Baking method

The baking method for injera has changed little since its origin. Traditionally, the flour is mixed with water and fermented. It is baked by pouring the mixture onto a large circular griddle, known as a mitad. (File:Injera stove .. and fresh Injera being cooked.JPG|thumb|Injera being cooked on a griddle.)The injera is baked into large, flat and round pieces. The dough’s viscosity allows it to be poured onto the baking surface, rather than rolled out.In terms of shape, injera compares to the French crÃªpe and the Indian dosa as a flatbread cooked in a circle and used as a base for other foods. In taste and texture, it is more similar to the South Indian appam. The bottom surface of the injera, which touches the heating surface, has a relatively smooth texture, while the top is porous. This porous texture makes injera good for scooping up sauces and dishes.

Baking surface

Baking is done on a circular griddleâ€”either a large black clay plate over a fire or a specialized electric stove. The griddle is known as a {{transliteration|am|mitad}} () (in Amharic) or {{transliteration|ti|mogogo}} () (in Tigrinya). Mitads have been found at archaeological sites dating back as far as 600 AD. Nowadays, mitads are no longer always made out of clay, and can also be electric.Traditional clay stoves can be inefficient in that they consume large amounts of firewood and produce a lot of smoke, creating household pollution and making them dangerous to use around children.BOOK, Diehl, Jan Carel, Jones, Robin, Verwaal, Martin, 4 May 2017, The Development of an Energy Efficient Electric Mitad for Baking Injeras in Ethiopia,www.researchgate.net/publication/315787267, 10.23919/DUE.2017.7931827, 2017 International Conference on the Domestic Use of Energy (DUE), 75â€“82, 978-0-9946759-2-7, 42098925,resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0b7d8d39-7742-4877-8a39-5e598daa1fed, In 2003, an Eritrean research group designed a stove for cooking injera and other foods that uses more easily available fuel, such as twigs instead of large branches, crop residues and dung, locally called kubet.WEB,www.ashden.org/winners/rec-formerly-ertc, Ashden awards: REC (formerly ERTC), Eritrea â€“ Local construction of efficient stoves, Ashden, 2003, 17 October 2017, Several parts of this new stove are made in the central cities of Ethiopia and Eritrea, while other parts are moulded from clay by women in local areas.(File:Ethiopia Gheralta WomanCookingInjera.JPG|thumb|Woman checking the baking of an injera in her house. Gheralta, Ethiopia.)Many women in urban areasâ€”especially those living outside Ethiopia and Eritreaâ€”now use electric injera stoves, which are topped with a large metal plate, or simply non-stick frying pans.

Consumption and contemporary use

(File:Injera Texture.jpg|thumb|right|Injera showing typical spongy texture)In Ethiopia and Eritrea, a variety of stews, salads (during Ethiopian Orthodox fasting, for which believers abstain from most animal products), and more injera (called injera firfir) are placed on the injera for serving. Using one’s hand (traditionally only the right one),NEWS,www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2017/03/15/ethiopian-food-how-to-eat.html, Toronto Star, Aparita, Bhandari, 15 March 2017, How to Eat: Ethiopian cuisine is hands-on, 29 March 2017, BOOK, Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures, Chris, McManus, Harvard University Press, 2004, 24,books.google.com/books?id=20oza63ZuG4C&pg=PA24, Other Bantu languages mostly talked about the ‘eating hand’ and, [...]

eating utensil, and Plate (dishware)>plate. When the entire “tablecloth” of injera is gone, the meal is over.In Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera is eaten daily in virtually every household. Outside of Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera may be found in grocery stores and restaurants specializing in Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking.{{multiple image| align = center| direction = horizontal| width = | footer_align = center| footer = Left: An injera stove. Right: Freshly-baked injera.| image1 = Injera, Ethiopian bread made from teff a cereal native to Ethiopia.JPG| width1 = 170| alt1 = | caption1 = | image2 = Fresh Injera.JPG| width2 = 190| alt2 = | caption2 = }}{{clear}}Injera is the most important component of food in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is often both the serving platter and utensil for a meal. Hearty stews such as wat are placed on top of the bread and then the meal is eaten by tearing pieces of injera off and scooping up the stews.JOURNAL, Sokolov, Raymond, 1993, The Teff Also Rises, Natural History, 102, 3, 96, While injera’s literal use as the base and staple of any Ethiopian and Eritrean meal has not changed since its creation, its symbolic value has changed. Different varieties of injera can be found in the highlands vis-Ã -vis the lowlands of Ethiopia. In the lowlands, injera is often made with sorghum and in the highlands it is more commonly made with barley. Either way, because it is made with something other than teff, its symbolic value has already decreased compared to the symbolic value of injera made with teff. There are symbolic value differences with types of teff as well. White-grained teff is more expensive to buy and thus symbolizes a higher status than its cheaper counterpart, red-grained teff.

Outside Ethiopia and Eritrea

There are similar variants to injera in other African countries, namely Sudan and Chad. The variant eaten in South Sudan, Sudan and Chad is known as kisra.BOOK, Burdett, Avani, Delicatessen Cookbook â€“ Burdett’s Delicatessen Recipes: How to make and sell Continental & World Cuisine foods, 2012, Springwood emedia,books.google.com/books?id=p5nhpRfaDpIC, 9781476144627, It is increasingly popular in Israel due to immigration of Ethiopian Jews.

United States

(File:Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Teff Flour.jpg|thumb|right|A bag of retail teff flour)Injera became more common in the United States during a spike in Ethiopian immigration in the 1980s and 1990s,WEB,www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2008, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2008, 4 May 2016, Department of Homeland Security, 0743-538X, 7063193, 11 August 2019, largely because of the Refugee Act passed in 1980.JOURNAL, Chacko, Elizabeth, 2003, Identity and Assimilation among Young Ethiopian Immigrants in Metropolitan Washington, Geographical Review, American Geographical Society

issue = 4, 491â€“506, 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2003.tb00044.x, 30033939, 145226876, Teff flour is now being produced in the United States by the Teff Company in Idaho, making teff more accessible to expatriate Ethiopians.NEWS, Weil, Josh,www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/dining/01inje.html, To Ethiopians in America, Bread is a Taste of Home, The New York Times, 1 August 2007, 8 May 2018, In America, it is often cooked on an aluminum “Bethany Heritage Grill”.

References

External links

{{Commons-inline}}
Mesob Across America: Ethiopian Food in the U.S.A. A book about the history and culture of Ethiopian cuisine

- content above as imported from Wikipedia
- "injera" does not exist on GetWiki (yet)
- time: 8:02am EDT - Wed, May 22 2024

[ this remote article is provided by Wikipedia ]

CONNECT

GetWiki

injera

Ingredients

Preparation

Making

Baking method

Baking surface

Consumption and contemporary use

Outside Ethiopia and Eritrea

United States

See also

References

Further reading

External links