Fake Beats Authentic Every Time

I believe I have conquered the injera crisis.

I tried to make some authentic injera this time. I mixed teff and water and let it sit for three days, and in the end, it smelled a great deal like cow manure and fried up into something that could easily have passed for a miniature cow pie. It was flat and dark and had no bubbles, and it made me realize how stupid I was to pay attention to other people's lame recipes.

I decided to do what I should have done in the first place, i.e. cheat.

I had bona fide injera last week, and I can tell you for a fact that it's basically a pancake. It's supposed to be light and fluffy. And it isn't necessarily all teff, either. The ones I had definitely were not. Internet research has confirmed that actual Ethiopians cut it with wheat flour most of the time. So the idea was to make a pancake using both types of grain.

I mixed the teff with self-rising flour. I added a good deal of baking powder, because this stuff is supposed to rise pretty high. I combined the whole mess with an egg white whipped until stiff. Then I added salt and buttermilk.

The buttermilk is to fake the sourdough taste. I suspect this is what the people at the restaurant do, because I can't tell the difference, and their pancakes smelled nothing like manure.

The pancakes were very nice, finally. I reheated my remaining doro wat and had it for lunch, and I am quite satisfied. Still, the sad fact is, a roti is better than injera. And injera is a pain to make, for technical reasons, even if you do it my way.

I think it would be great to get a real sourdough culture started and do it that way, but I would still keep my basic recipe.

I don't know why so many recipes say to use water and no milk. Water makes for heavy, flat pancakes. The restaurant pancakes don't taste like they were made with water. I think injera must be like pizza. People who know how to make it deliberately lie to the rest of us because, well, because they're ASSHOLES.

Another reason to buy my book when it comes out.