The Injera Experiment

For those of you who may not know what injera is welcome to the injera experiment. Injera is a sour tasting flexible flat bread that is used as a utensil to eat food and looks much like a crepe. It's main ingredient is from a grass crop that readily grows in Ethiopia called teff. I have never had injera before, but have wanted to try if for a long time. Since we'll be bringing a child home from Ethiopia (sometime in my 30's) I thought I'd try to make it. There are so many different recipes for injera I came to the conclusion you can just make up you own. I did it the 'traditional' way the first batch and let it ferment for 3 days with the help of some yeast. I wasn't sure if it was ready to cook, but I forged ahead anyway. The result, very sour injera. The second batch, I found a recipe for on someones blog (faux injera). This one didn't use teff flour just wheat and white. The texture was the same as 'authentic' injera but not at all sour. The third batch I made, I used the teff flour again but did not let it ferment at all. I just mixed it up and cooked it. This one tasted different than the regular flour injera, but not sour. The conclusion: I do not like really fermented injera, but the 2nd and 3rd batch were not at all sour. SO... next time I think I will let the mixture ferment only slightly and try it.