Injera is a traditional Ethiopian flatbread made from teff flour or other grains like wheat, barley, rice, or corn. It is a staple food in Ethiopia and is used to scoop up and soak up stews and other foods served on top of it at meals. The document provides a recipe for making injera at home as well as cultural context about its role in Ethiopian cuisine and meals.

1. PROEXPOSURE: let them eat pancakes
Injera, a type of pancake is a staple food of Ethiopians everywhere and
so it often comes under the gaze of the photographers from
PROEXPOSURE Ethiopia.
To mark Shrove Tuesday here are a selection of some of their photos.

3. Injera is a traditional Ethiopian flat bread which can be
made from several types of flour depending on the location
of the bread baker. Injera is also called enjera, laxoox, lahoh
or canjeero. Some of the flours used in making injera are
teff, whole wheat flour, barley, rice, and/or corn meal. Teff
is the flour of choice for injera. However, since the growing
of this iron rich grain is limited to certain elevations and a
particular amount of rainfall. Teff can be hard to come by
and also very expensive.
Jeanne Egbosiuba Ukwendu

4. Most Ethiopians who
live outside of Ethiopia
will go to great lengths
to eat injera – and so if
they cannot access teff
they substitute with
whole wheat flour,
barley, rice or corn
meal.

5. Recipe for Injera
1 1/2 cups ground teff (180 g)
2 cups water
salt, to taste
vegetable oil, for the skillet
Directions:
1 Mix ground teff with the water and let stand in a bowl covered with
a dish towel at room temperature until it bubbles and has turned sour;
This may take as long as 3 days, although I had success with an
overnight fermentation; The fermenting mixture should be the
consistency of a very thin pancake batter.
2 Stir in the salt, a little at a time, until you can barely detect its taste.

7. 3 Lightly oil an 8 or 9 inch skillet (or a larger one if you like); Heat over
medium heat.
4 Pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the skillet; About 1/4
cup will make a thin pancake covering the surface of an 8 inch skillet if
you spread the batter around immediately by turning and rotating the
skillet in the air; This is the classic French method for very thin crepes;
Injera is not supposed to be paper thin so you should use a bit more
batter than you would for crepes, but less than you would for a flapjack
pancakes.
5 Cook briefly, until holes form in the injera and the edges lift from the
pan; Do not let it brown, and don't flip it over as it is only supposed to
be cooked on one side.

9. 6 Remove and let cool. Place plastic wrap or foil between successive
pieces so they don't stick together.
7 To serve, lay one injera on a plate and ladle your chosen dishes on top
(e.g., a lovely doro wat or alicha). Serve additional injera on the side.
Guests can be instructed to eat their meal without utensils, instead using
the injera to scoop up their food.
Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/authentic-injera-aka-ethiopian-flat-bread

11. Injera is almost never eaten by itself.
The large flat bread is placed on the
table and other food is placed on top of
the injera. Injera becomes the plate,
the eating utensil, and the food. Pieces
of injera are ripped off the main bread
and used to scoop or pickup the other
foods such as stews and salads. The
injera soaks up the juices and flavors
from the food placed upon it. As the
meal continues, the table becomes
empty of all food.
If you are a guest at a meal in Ethiopia,
don't be surprised if someone tries to
feed you some food. This is done as a
sign of respect.

13. See more photos from Ethiopia on our website www.proexposure.co.uk
For more information about PROEXPOSURE contact our friendly team
On +44(0)207275 8472 or email proexposure@gmail.com
Photo credits: Ataklti Mulu, Frewoini Gebre Mariam, Alem Assefa, Sara Ibrahim
Text credit: Jeanne Egbosiuba Ukwendu and www.food.com