Our First Attempt at Making Injera - Day 4 - SUCCESS!

It worked!  Our attempt at making injera was a success.  Tonight we feasted on gomen, shiro, and tibbs, all wrapped in spongy sour injera and dipped in extra berbere powder.  The kids were so excited!

The prep work is complete.

The judges look on as Daddy prepares to pour the
first cup of batter.

Not looking too bad.

Eager anticipation.

The first piece is revealed.

And does not materialize as a piece of injera after all.

Waiting on the second piece.  Ashagre has LOTS of
pointers.  (Note the tin foil lid my brother made.)

The second piece is revealed.

Cheers abound!  Our first piece of injera!

I think they just might be a little bit proud of their dad.

Three pieces of injera!

Now its time to make the rest of the meal.

Gomen, tibbs and shiro right before it was inhaled by two little Ethiopians.

Jockeying for the next tasty bite.

Elsa even ate the green peppers (jalapenos).  How come she finds much
smaller pieces in everything else we make and refuses to eat them?

Overall, I would say that the injera came out better than I thought it might for a first attempt.  We all left the table stuffed with the slight smell of berbere on our hands.

With that said, we're going to do a few things differently next time:

1. Continue to season our griddle with salt.  Our first piece of injera stuck so bad we had to throw it out.  The next two came off pretty smoothly.  I think a few more seasonings and our griddle should be broken in.

2.  Order a lid for our griddle.  While my brother's improvised tin foil lid worked well, I think investing in a lid is will make our lives easier in the long run.

2. Order teff online.  Apparently the teff we used isn't recommended by seasoned injera makers.

3. Make at least a double batch.  We only got 3 large pieces of injera out of our first batch (granted we threw one more away); next time we'll make a double batch so everyone gets their own roll.

4. Maybe let it ferment one more day.  We made our initial batch of batter on Thursday.  It needs to ferment 36-48 hours.  I think if it would have went one more day it might have turned out a little more bubbly and spongy.