A stable of Ethiopian cooking—but a familiar part of meals throughout Africa and the rest of the world—injera is a wonderfully spongy bread made from teff flour. The kids loved tearing and eating the bread with their hands—which is the excepted manner to eat injera—and enjoyed its slightly sour taste and one-of-a-kind porous texture. While some children thought it reminded them of a tortilla, injera is actually closer to the taste of sourdough bread, mixed with the feel of a soft pancake.
The only challenge harder than making it from scratch—the flour normally needs to sit for upwards of 24 hours—is finding fresh injera here in Portland. But given our town's bountiful Ethiopian community, and with a tip from the owner's of Queen of Sheba, I found fresh injera at Awah Market (2322 MLK Blvd.). Only available for a few hours each day, it usually sells out shortly after noon, their injera is delicate and fluffy, yet still maintains a wonderful flavor.
But kids can't live by plain injera alone, so I served the bread with my spiced tofu dip. If these pictures are any indication, it went over quite well.
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