Things Ethiopian (2007-10-15)

(Originally posted on 15 October 2007.)

One of my Saturday errands was to find a source of teff flour, since I’m trying my hand at making injera. I found a recipe with detailed instructions on the Ethiopia Adoption Blog and have spent the past week preparing the starter. Mary uses wheat flour for the starter, and adds teff flour only when preparing to cook the actual injera (which ends up converting your wheat starter to teff starter) so I wasn’t in a huge rush initially. But the time to move on to phase 2 is approaching, so I needed to find some teff*!

Seeing as there are at least four Ethiopian restaurants in town, I figured there had to be a local source, the question was just how to find it. First stop was a store downtown that I know carries many different kinds of ingredients for African, Caribbean and Chinese cooking. Giggles and I made that our first stop of our Saturday errands and looked up and down every aisle. I found corn flour, garbanzo flour, rice flour, fufu flour, and countless other things, but no teff.

On the other hand, we discovered that the store’s upper floor carries a wide variety of hair care products for African hair, so I now know where to find what I’ll need in that department. Though seeing as I’m having an African son, I doubt our needs will be as extensive as if he were a girl!

Okay, where next? I recalled seeing a store near the market that billed itself as carrying ingredients for African and Middle Eastern cuisine, so headed there next. Found a parking spot right in front of an Ethiopian restaurant and walked the short distance to the store, but a sign on the door said it was closed, “back at 3:00.”

It was only 12:45, and Giggles’ art class was due to start in 45 minutes, so we needed a bite to eat. Obvious choice: the Ethiopian restaurant. While dining, I asked the waitress where they got the teff flour for their injera, and she pointed me to a store at the southeast extreme of downtown (well, not really downtown per se, but close…). So after taking Giggles to art class, I headed over and found what I was seeking right inside the front door, in 10-kg sacks. Unsure I wanted to start with such a large quantity, I looked around and found smaller amounts in plastic bags.

So now I’ve got all I need to make injera – barring a large enough frying pan to cook them to the proportions usually observed in Ethiopia or restaurants here. But that will have to wait for another shopping trip. For now we’ll stick to regular frying pan size.

*Actually, one can use other flours to make injera, such as barley, rice, corn, or millet, but teff is the most “authentic” and from what I’ve read, most injera contains at least some teff.