Injera

The word injera is from Amharic. It is also spelled enjera, ingera, or aenjera. ==Preparation==

Ingredients Injera is usually made of teff, a cereal crop that originated in Ethiopia and is mostly consumed in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Teff is sifted and milled into a fine flour. It is kneaded with water into a dough, usually by hand. The ratio of flour to water ranges from equal parts to two-thirds. The ingredients are kneaded in a container called a to form a watery dough. Teff is the preferred grain for making injera, because of its sensory attributes (color and flavor) as well as its long shelf life. Teff seeds are graded according to color, used to make different kinds of injera: (white), (red), and (mixed). The primary use of teff is injera. Injera is made with a variety of different grains, including barley, finger millet, sorghum, wheat, maize, and rice, which may or may not be mixed with teff. The grains are milled into flour, often with disc mills. The proportions of grains vary based on local and family traditions as well as financial considerations. In the lowlands, injera is often made with sorghum, and in the highlands, it is more commonly made with barley. Rice flour is sometimes used in commercially produced injera as it is cheaper and more common than teff. Among the Ethiopian diaspora, injera is made of rice flour or a mix of rice and wheat flour. As teff is expensive, pure teff injera is a symbol of wealth. It requires a heat source at about 300–600°C (). 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. 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. Many women in urban areas—especially those living outside Ethiopia and Eritrea—now use electric injera stoves, which are topped with a large metal plate, or simply non-stick frying pans. --> Machines for mass production of foods like injera typically pour batter onto a rotating heat element, then put the cooked injeras onto a conveyor belt on which they are cooled. Injera is large and very thin, with a diameter of about 50–60 cm () and a thickness of about 6–7 mm. Classification and similar breads Injera may be classified as a pancake as it is made of batter, or it may be described as a pancake-like flatbread. It is classified as a fermented pancake, like the crumpet in English cuisine, which similarly has air bubbles. Lahoh is similar to injera but is thicker and uses sorghum as the main ingredient. A similar bread is kisra, which is thinner than injera and cooked uncovered. The similarity between kisra and injera suggests that they may be related, though food scholar Hamid A. Dihar believes that they are not. Like injera, lahoh and kisra become puffy due to fermentation. The Ethiopian flatbread kitcha is made of teff but is unfermented and thicker than injera. The Oromo flatbread cumboo is made of the same dough as injera. ==Serving==

Injera is stored in a cylindrical straw basket called a mesob, in which it may be covered in plastic. However, injera does not last as long in a mesob. Dried injera, or dirkosh, can be stored in a dry place for up to a year and rehydrated. Fit-fit is a dish consisting of dried injera in tomato sauce. The most common pairing with injera is wat, a stew of meat and vegetables. This includes doro wat, made with chicken, and shiro, made of pulses without meat. Other foods eaten with injera include meat or boiled vegetables. Using one's hand (traditionally only the right one), small pieces of injera are torn and used to grasp the stews and salads for eating. The injera served on the bottom soaks up the juices and flavors of the foods. Once the meal is over, this "tablecloth" of injera is also consumed. == Nutrition and properties ==

Injera is low in protein because its nutrition comes entirely from grains. It is high in prebiotics and probiotics due to the fiber content of the grains and the fermentation process. The fermentation process also breaks down phytic acid, which increases the mineral value of teff, which is high in minerals including iron. Thus, frequent consumption of teff injera is associated with low rates of anemia. The cooking process results in the loss of the vitamin folate by over half, but the fermentation process increases folate retention. Teff injera has a high glycemic index. It is also high in antinutrients such as tannins. It contains about 59.8% water. Injera is ideally soft and pliable so it can wrap around accompanying foods. Other desired qualities include thinness and sour flavor. Qualities of injera can vary widely as it involves a lengthy, artisinal process, and qualities such as texture and bubbliness cannot be measured objectively. Differences in microbial content can change the flavor. The process significantly impacts sensory qualities. It helps achieve a smooth texture with eyes. When using grains other than teff, millet, or corn, may not be needed. However, when using sorghum, the step is necessary to increase the viscosity to that of teff dough and produce uniform eyes. The liquid that forms during primary fermentation contains minerals, sugars, amino acids, and riboflavin, so its removal decreases injera's nutritional value. Injera has a shelf life of about 3 days, being spoiled by mold. In extreme circumstances, injera that has become moldy may be sun-dried and eaten. Chemical preservatives may increase the shelf life to 12 days. Injera from white teff has a higher shelf life than dark teff. Compared to other grains such as sorghum, teff absorbs more water because of its very small starch granules. This makes teff injera more flexible and better at keeping its softness. Teff also differs from such grains because the prolamin proteins in teff are hydrophobic and experience low polymerization. Rice flour produces injera similar to teff as the type and size of the starch granules are similar. However, rice injera has a bad shelf life, staling after one day. Maize injera is sticky and also stales after one day. Studies have found that using additional grains in teff injera may result in comparable qualities to pure teff injera. Teff mixed with sorghum has better sensory qualities than sorghum alone. Studies have found that grains other than teff may result in improved nutrition. For example, adding wheat to teff may increase nutrition as wheat causes higher breakdown of phytic acid. ==History==

Though teff has been cultivated since the 4th millennium BC, the origin of injera is unknown. According to botanists Robert B. Stewart and Asnake Getachew, folklore holds that injera originated around 100 BC, but this cannot be confirmed in the historical record. They speculate that injera may have been invented after someone left flour with moisture for a few days and found that it made a pleasant bread. Archaeologist Richard Wilding hypothesized that the presence of griddles may indicate the presence of teff and injera. Mitads have been found at archaeological sites dating back as far as 600 AD, possible evidence for injera and shiro. Ethiopian teff production decreased during the famine of the 1980s. Ethiopian restaurants in the United States switched to other grains. At the time, teff was rarely grown outside of Ethiopia, but a small amount existed in the United States. Around the 1990s, farmer Wayne Carlson of Caldwell, Idaho, founded The Teff Company, one of the first in the country to produce it at a large scale, enabling teff injera to be made in the country. Injera consumption in Ethiopia increased as demand for convenience food grew. The proportion of the country's food expenditure that went toward injera increased from 0.8% in 1996 and 2000 to 4.7% in 2011. Injera was still less common in rural areas. Ethiopian injera exports also increased, possibly due to an increase in airplane connections. ==Consumption and contemporary use==

In Ethiopia and Eritrea Injera is the main staple food in Ethiopian cuisine, along with smaller amounts of other grains. Many Ethiopians prepare it every day. For some rural Ethiopians, it comprises 90% of their diet. Injera exists in all parts of Ethiopia, with some differences. injera is common in rural areas, but in cities, it is mainly made to save time. injera is not preferred by most Ethiopians, and is often made by people with less experience. Injera comprises 20% of teff sales in Addis Ababa, a proportion that does not vary much over time. About 90% of these are retailers. Two types of retailers sell injera: shops, which sell various flour products at fixed locations, and small, itinerant retailers known as . Injera is also sold by wholesalers, including informal wholesalers and, less commonly, formal, branded companies. About 80% of sorghum in Ethiopia is used for injera, and its demand causes the grain to be more expensive than wheat in Ethiopia, unlike most of the world. Outside Ethiopia and Eritrea Outside of Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera may be found in grocery stores and restaurants specializing in Ethiopian cooking, particularly in major cities. Injera is commonly eaten by the Ethiopian diaspora in the Western world. There are similar variants to injera in other African countries, namely Sudan, Chad and Kenya. In Kenya, a variant of injera is eaten by the Borana and Gabra living in the northern parts of the country. It is increasingly popular in Israel due to immigration of Ethiopian Jews. Injera exported US$10 million in 2015 (equivalent to in ), with the largest market being North America. United States Injera became more common in the United States during a spike in Ethiopian immigration in the 1980s and 1990s, largely because of the Refugee Act passed in 1980. Mass production of injera and its introduction into the US market was pioneered by an Ethiopian-American immigrant, Tedla Desta, who opened the first injera bakery in Alexandria, Virginia. He introduced the seed to Johnston Seed Co. in Enid, Oklahoma, which became his initial supplier. Teff flour is produced in the United States by several companies, making injera more accessible to immigrant Ethiopians. In America, it is often cooked on an aluminum lefse grill. ==In culture==

Injera is significant in the culture of Ethiopia. It is seen as a national dish, and a picture of a mesob is on the 10 birr banknote. Religious and national holidays and events such as weddings and birthdays typically feature injera. During funerals, participants from outside the family carry mesobs full of injera. During graduation parties, guests bring injera and drinks such as tella and areqe. Farmers also share injera with each other to express gratitude for helping with farming. During Ethiopian Orthodox fast days, for which believers abstain from animal products, injera is often served in a mesob alongside wot, shiro, vegetable dishes, and pasta. Orthodox churchgoers offer injera for the priest to eat after the service. Some Orthodox families in the city of Bahir Dar wrap injera around babies after their baptisms to bring good fortune. In some parts of the Amhara Region, dreaming about injera is interpreted as a sign of good luck. Among the Amhara from around Bahir Dar, it is believed that a woman who makes good injera is good at managing a household and that a woman who makes injera with good eyes is hard-working like a honeybee. ==See also==