Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Conversation Bites / Restaurants In General, Injera is a Cottage Industry
Posted by Nicki Wood on Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 7:52 AM
Takeout from Gojo Ethiopian on Thompson Lane is so not the same old thing. Gojo's food is exceptionally good, and Ethiopian food in general is a dramatic departure from the ordinary, both in flavor and in what experts call "the delivery method."
Tear off a piece of the springy, slightly sour injera flatbread and use it to pick up a bite of doro, a bite of tickel gomen, a little kitfo or misir. The tangy bread offsets the richly butter-drenched and spiced vegetables. The method can be off-putting at first for adults, but children cannot believe their luck in being allowed to eat with their hands.
The distinctive bread doesn't age well or travel well, so homemade injera is a must. It's a lot of work: besides finding teff (a nutritious grain that's rare outside Ethiopia) and mixing the batter, there's an overnight (or longer) fermentation that results in the tangy taste. Then they're cooked, one at a time, like crepes. It made me wonder who makes Gojo's ample injeras.
Maregn herself is the injera cook, working on her own, scooping 10-ounce portions of batter onto a 15-inch grill and waiting 1 to 3 minutes for it to cook, then stacking them in a large, clean round plastic tub for transport. She didn't have an estimate for how long it takes, or how much she makes, but a back-of-the-envelope calculation comes up with maybe 50 to fill the tub in question.
I'm tentatively planning an Ethiopian dinner with friends. We'll cook the vegetables and the stews. Happily, Maregn sells her breads to the public, so we'll forego the clumsy experimentation and just buy from a professional. Just give her a day's notice so she can make extra batter. Contact Gojo at 332-0710.
Comments (6)
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I always enjoy my meals at Gojo. I love the intimate atmosphere and friendly staff.
FYI, that fermentation process helps make the bread much more digestable and holds in the nutrients usually stripped out in the normal bread making process.
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Wow, thanks for the tip, I never knew I could get some injera for my own home use! Now I'm craving some Gojo!
Tef is unique, in that it is the only grain that contains symbiotic yeast---none is added in the fermentation process for injera.
And, oddly, unique to Ethiopian culture/cuisine---it doesn't show up elsewhere.
probably my most exotic Thanksgiving ever occurred three years ago when we were visiting my daughter in Ethiopia!
we especially love the vegetable dishes, shiro wat.
If you go just a little bit up the road to the International Food Mart on Thompson Lane, on the other side of Nolensville Road, they sell bags of Injera from about four or five different vendors, along with pita bread and khobz. I'm a fan of the injera made with barley flour in addition to the teff.
Shemsia mentioned the commercially available varieties, J-Mar. She mentioned that some have a lot of wheat flour, which she sort of turned up her nose at. But I do like barley flour -- I like the cakey texture it gives to bread. Or anyway, to wheat bread. Might be a good experiment.
