Comments on: Try the African Cookbook

Try the African Cookbook

Kattullus — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:00:41 -0800

The African Cookbook is a compilation of recipes from 9 countries in Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Sudan and Tanzania & Zanzibar. As well as a handful of recipes each section has short chapters on how food is served in each country. For more recipes and information go to Try African Food.

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:26:53 -0800

I was really hopeful about this, but the first recipe I looked up (for injera) calls for buckwheat pancake mix, at which point I went from hopeful to skeptical and snobby and slightly off-put. Still worth a wary browse, though.

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:29:29 -0800

I should clarify. The background/cultural info is really fascinating. And the recipes are probably great for approximating general flavors in a particular culture's dish. But it's really hard to find good, authentic recipes for African dishes, and these doen't seem to be all that authentic, judging from the pancake mix metric. But it's still a really neat site!

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:36:13 -0800

I had the same experience as mudpuppie, but for the Ethiopian honey-wine -- the recipe is just European-style grape wine, water, and honey; no fermentation and with a halfhearted apology for a lack of hops. What the hey?

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:41:41 -0800

After reading some more, my favorite is the second Kenyan recipe, Steak and Irio. It calls for canned peas, canned corn, instant mashed potatoes, and onion soup mix. Turns out my mom was cooking Kenyan for my entire childhood, and I never knew it.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:42:49 -0800

Well, in the case of the injera Sandler's looking for a substitute for tef, which is hard to find in the US now and was probably impossible in 1993 when the book was written. That said, the Try African Food site has less adapted recipes, as far as I can tell. The idea of The African Cookbook is that its African recipes most every American can cook in their homes. Also, since it's from 1993, it's somewhat dated.

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:45:45 -0800

Bob to the rescue! Teff.

By: shoesietart

shoesietart — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:47:32 -0800

Mudpuppie - re the injera, that was my reaction too. I've been trying to find a good injera recipe. I even bought some teff, the grain that is actually used in Ethiopia but now I can't find a recipe. I'm wondering if I can mill it in my food processor or coffee grinder but then what...

By: shoesietart

shoesietart — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:53:24 -0800

I think Bob's is the brand of teff I have but it's whole grain not flour. This gets me one step closer.

By: Forktine

Forktine — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:54:36 -0800

The Congo Cookbook was the subject of a FPP, I think, and has what look to my inexpert eyes to be a much better selection of recipes.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:54:38 -0800

Marilee's teff page has a few recipes for injera.

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:55:57 -0800

Injera In a glass bowl, mix teff flour with water until it's the consistency of a thin pancake batter. Add about a half teaspoon of salt. Cover with a towel and let sit overnight, unrefrigerated. Bubbles should form, indicating that it's fermenting. It should smell slightly sour, like sourdough starter, but should not smell bad or 'off'. Heat a large nonstick pan or nonstick electric skillet. Ladle in batter and cook until the top is spongy. Do not flip. Remove from pan and roll to keep warm. Repeat.

By: shoesietart

shoesietart — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:36:39 -0800

Thanks for injera recipe and recipe links.

By: Ms. Saint

Ms. Saint — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:00:36 -0800

If you make your own injera using just teff flour, know that it probably won't turn out like that injera you're used to at your local Ethiopian restaurant. They usually make injera out of a mixture of teff and wheat flour. (Or, at least, most places do.) Also: my boyfriend regularly makes Ethiopian honey wine and he's never used hops. But, beyond that, a recipe for wine that calls for no fermentation has something wrong with it.

By: sour cream

sour cream — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:18:01 -0800

Great, now I'm hungry.

By: caddis

caddis — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:20:00 -0800

Very nice!

By: Nick Verstayne

Nick Verstayne — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:58:03 -0800

I was really hopeful too, so I clicked on the Ethiopia link. Apparently, the women there have exquisite facial bone structure. Interesting, but no thanks.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:20:42 -0800

Shoesietart, there's a small Eritrean community in San Jose, and I think the store next to Gojo restaurant has teff flour. If you ever go to Massawa on Haight you might want to ask whether they know a retailer who carries it. Also, yum.

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:48:52 -0800

No need to go to San Jose. Rainbow Grocery has teff in their bulk section.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:06:01 -0800

I'm jealous of your tef availability. Over here, all the Ethiopians seem to have settled in Melbourne, and even there, the restaurants I've visited have used a bastard mix for their injera, based on some kind of buckwheat sourdough batter. It's vaguely similar to real injera, but only in the same way that you might make your own sashimi by chopping up some random raw river fish.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:16:22 -0800

For anyone looking for teff, Bob's Red Mill also has an online store.