Eritrean Injera
Sorry about this not very flattering picture! But this is the whole teff grass (in a plastic bag!) that grows in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
These are the grains...
that get ground into the teff flour...
You mix teff flour with water and sour teff starter to make the batter.
Check out these videos of Asmeret's magical pouring and cooking methods.
(sorry, the download is taking forever. I'll upload later!)
She pours the batter in spiral from the outside in until so the entire pan is filled in,
and then covers it.
Asmeret's body clock tells her when to lift the lid off the injera. I counted 1 minute 15 seconds.
Then she slid a woven mat underneath the cooked ingera to transport it from pan to plate. Cool.
You can stack injera, keeping them in a plastic, then reheat on a pan or in a microwave when it's time to eat.
Okay, now for the delicious spicy chicken. Start with onions.
She added a little water just to keep them from burning.
She's adding ghee, butter that she's already simmered with turmeric (for color) and fenugreek (for aroma).
Next is the secret spice to this dish: berbere. It's a combination of a lot of little amounts of spices like allspice, ginger, and black pepper, but it's mostly toasted and ground dried super hot chilis, salt and fenugreek.
Here she goes, adding the magic...
While the berbere spices are cooking, she peels the skins of the drumsticks,
and blends tomatoes.
Isn't this sauce darker than you'd expect? She's just added tomato sauce and blended tomatoes, and is letting it cook..
"Not fast food, our food," said Asmeret Teklu, laughing a little.
