Injera
Bread
Yield: 5 9-inch pancakes
Combine: 1 cup BUCKWHEAT PANCAKE MIX
1 cup BISCUIT MIX 1 EGG
Add: 1 Tbs. OIL
1 1/2-2 cups WATER to obtain an easy pouring consistency.
Bring a 10-inch skillet or a handled griddle pan to medium heat uniformly over the flame. Do not let the pan get too hot.
Spread 1/2 tsp. OIL over the pan with a brush.
Fill a measuring cup (with spout) or a large cream pitcher with batter.
Pour the mixture on the hot pan or griddle in a thin stream starting from the outside and going in circles to the center from left to right. As soon as it bubbles uniformly all over remove from heat. Pancakes should be 9 inches in diameter.
Place the pan in an oven at 325' for about 1 minute until the top is dry but not brown.
Arrange the five pancakes overlapping each other so as to completely cover a fifteen-inch tray, thus forming the Injera "tablecloth."
This unleavened bread of Ethiopia is really a huge pancake made by the women in special large pans with heavy covers. The Tef batter is saved from an earlier baking and added to the new batter to give it a sourdough quality. It is poured at a thin consistency and baked covered so that the bottom of the pancake does not brown. The top should be full of air holes before the pancake is covered. The heavy cover steams the pancake so that when it is finished it looks like a huge thin rubber sponge. Since Tef is not available here, we had to find a way to simulate Injera in our test kitchen. The combination of buckwheat flour mix and biscuit mix seems to produce the closest substitute. Making it is easy, but getting the Injera texture takes a bit of experimentation, first, because not all pancake mixes are alike and secondly, it is important to cook the pancake at just the right temperature. This takes a bit of practice.
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