Here we use yeast for breads you can make in minutes rather than days.
If you can, buy a sourdough starter. Or make your own. It’ll only take you three days! Put a cupful of flour in a bowl with a cup and half of tepid water and half a teaspoon of instant dry yeast. Mix well and leave, covered but not sealed, for three days. Initially there’ll be lots of frothy activity – eventually the mixture settles and a brownish liquid form on top. Ready.
The throusand hole crepe is in fact popular throughout North Africa.
- Teff gives you Injera
- Wheat flour, on the other hand makes Lahoh, a bread also popular in Ethiopia as well as neighbouring Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti and Yemen.
- Morrocans know it as Baghrir
- And in Russia and neighbouring countries buckheat flour with the addition of yoghurt or kefir gives us Blinis. By the way, what is it with this popular notion that 100% buckwheat is heavy and it should be adulterated with wheat? Piffle, tosh and balderdash!
Yeast-Based Injera, Lahoh etc
Ingredients
- 1/2 kilo injera or buckwheat, millet, barley or any flour, including wheat
- 1 tsp instant dry yeast, a dollop of fresh yeast, or a teacup full of pre-prepared sourdough culture
- 1/2 tsp salt
- water
Instructions
- dissolve the fresh or dry yeast in a little water, or put a cupful of sourdough culture in a large bowl
- add the flour in a bowl and enough water to create a thick batter or thin dough, the consistency of wet mud-clay. Work this dough with your hands or a blender for at least 10 minutes.
- Now add enough water to make a batter the consistency of cream: slightly thickeer than crepe batter, but trhinner than pancake.
- cover with a cloth or cling film and let stand in a warm place for half an hour or until the mixture has swelled and produced lots of bubbles
- avoid stirring or agitating or you won't get your holes.
- make the pancakes: no oil is used. Ladle the mix onto a just cold or warm non-stick pan or crepe maker in a spiral from the outside towards the centre. Turn up the heat to medium high (200c if using the crepe maker). When you have 80% of the holes formed cover witha lid to steam for 45 seconds. The crepe is ready wwhen the sides curl and you can easily unstick it from the pan with a spatula
- North African breads are cooked on one side only. Blinis can be flipped over to brown both sides- or not
- enjoy with your favourite accompaniments and toppings