North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jay Cutts" <cutts@cuttsreviews.com>]

Just finished a  home made faux Ethiopian dinner here this evening, when I
noticed this posting.

I've read some places that one should keep a culture going to ferment the
teff, like you do with sour dough starter.  Originally I imagine the yeasts
just came from the air.  So adding yeast just adds a measure of control.  The
purpose of the yogurt is to break down some of the starch.  I suppose the yeas
is doing that as well.  I think the combination just gives a better probiotic
product (although after cooking it, the good bacteria probably don't survive.)
 Ok, well, my other excuse then is just that it is a wider variety of
organisms  breaking the starch down.  My injera has a distinct sour taste,
which I personally like, and is light and digestible.

Teff looks to me to be closely related to some of the Sporoboluses
(sporoboli?), perennial grasses that grow in the west.  The one I have
collected seed from is S. cryptandrus, I believe.  The seed is about the same
size as teff.  I've ground it into flour successfully (but never tried making
injera from it.)

S.c. grows fairly widely around here, wild and unirrigated.  It might be a
good candidate for semi-cultivating under conditions where it's not possible
to give it the same attention that fully cultivated crops.

It is, of course, a perennial, so would not produce as much seed as annual
teff.  However, it does have the advantage that it doesn't have to be
replanted every year and in fact the ground around it doesn't need to be
plowed.  As a  perennial it is already outcompeting other plants that an
annual might not be able to compete with without intensive plowing and
cultivating.

This could make Sporobolus good for places where there are vast areas of land
available but little water or people power needed for intensive cultivation.


> Teff has been grown out west in the US since at least the 70s...for human
> consumption.  The Teff and Teff flour we buy comes from Idaho.  I'm sure
> you can find online sources by searching for Teff and Idaho.
> 
> On Sun, October 4, 2009 11:01, Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu wrote:
> > Alan,
> > There are some farmers/ranchers here in the US who
> > are experimenting with teff as a forage crop for cattle.  I've seen a few
> > articles on it over the past 2-3 years.
> > Who knows, maybe there's a US source for teff or teff
> > flour that you could access.
> >
> > Lucky
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------- Original Message -------
> > From    : Alan Haigh[mailto:alandhaigh@gmail.com]
> > Sent    : 10/4/2009 6:18:48 AM
> > To      : nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> > Cc      :
> > Subject : RE: [NAFEX] Injera made with yogurt and
> > bread yeast?
> >
> > Now there's an off topic subject I just can't leave
> > alone.  My wife is Ethiopian, and when I read of Jay using yogurt culture
> > and generic bread yeast to make injera we had to chuckle a bit.  Got to
> > give the man credit, though, for using teff flour.  Teff is a grain
> > virtually unique to Ethiopia that gives injera, the wonderful, fluffy,
> > Ethiopian flat bread, a large
> > measure of it's character.
> >
> > Â
> > However, to make authentic injera she suggests
> > leaving the yogurt out of the recipe as well as the bread yeast.  The
> > yeast should come from the fermented teff flour itself. Wonder what Jay's
> > recipe is for berbere, a spice mixture that's kindof the curry of
> > Ethiopia.  You can't have good Ethiopian
> > food without both injera and a good berbere.  I love Ethiopian food!
> >
> >
> >
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