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Injeera Class Chaos
Feb. 25th, 2021 06:31 pmLast night was my injeera class. Injeera, for those of you who may not know, is an Ethiopian flat bread. It's usually the "plate" that a meal is served on, sort of the original bread bowl, if you will.
Shawn and I are huge fans of Ethiopian food.
When we were in college, we were on Minneapolis's West Bank (also known as the Cedar-Riverside area.) In 1985-89, the neighborhood was shifting from the last bastion of hippie culture to include new immigrants from Ethiopia and Somalia. We spent a lot of time at the various shops along Cedar and Riverside--I'd go to Midway Books or Evenstar or to check out music down at the Cedar Cultural Center (or, before that, even,) to the Coffeehouse Extempore. At some point, we stumbled across Odaa, our first experience with Ethiopian food.
We were hooked.
Shawn is not normally bit into spice, but she loves Ethiopian. I think a big part of what she loves is being able to eat with her fingers and the injeera. We used to regularly have to order more rolls of it.
So, when St. Paul Community Ed offered a Zoom course on cooking injeera, I HAD to sign up. It's taught by "Mimi" who teaches a lot of cooking classes through St Paul Community Ed, and... her mom. Mimi's mom was the best part of the class? She was a classic grumpy mom who gave Mimi a lot of grief about her cooking, while clearly being very supportive and trying her best to answer our questions about "How much are you putting in?" Unfortunately, a lot of her answers were classic grandma? "This much!" Then she scoops up a bit in her hand, "Like this. I show you!" And, meanwhile all of us on the other end are just shaking our heads and writing down "A cup, maybe???" I mean, they did provide us with a recipe, but part of why you take a class like this is to get the secret arcane knowledge that ONLY GRANDMAS KNOW.
I suspect if we had been in person, it would have been amazing.
I did get a recipe out of it and some tips, but I am not feeling confident that I will successfully make injeera when I next try it. But, hey, it's a pandemic project!!
I'm all about those in 2021.
Shawn and I are huge fans of Ethiopian food.
When we were in college, we were on Minneapolis's West Bank (also known as the Cedar-Riverside area.) In 1985-89, the neighborhood was shifting from the last bastion of hippie culture to include new immigrants from Ethiopia and Somalia. We spent a lot of time at the various shops along Cedar and Riverside--I'd go to Midway Books or Evenstar or to check out music down at the Cedar Cultural Center (or, before that, even,) to the Coffeehouse Extempore. At some point, we stumbled across Odaa, our first experience with Ethiopian food.
We were hooked.
Shawn is not normally bit into spice, but she loves Ethiopian. I think a big part of what she loves is being able to eat with her fingers and the injeera. We used to regularly have to order more rolls of it.
So, when St. Paul Community Ed offered a Zoom course on cooking injeera, I HAD to sign up. It's taught by "Mimi" who teaches a lot of cooking classes through St Paul Community Ed, and... her mom. Mimi's mom was the best part of the class? She was a classic grumpy mom who gave Mimi a lot of grief about her cooking, while clearly being very supportive and trying her best to answer our questions about "How much are you putting in?" Unfortunately, a lot of her answers were classic grandma? "This much!" Then she scoops up a bit in her hand, "Like this. I show you!" And, meanwhile all of us on the other end are just shaking our heads and writing down "A cup, maybe???" I mean, they did provide us with a recipe, but part of why you take a class like this is to get the secret arcane knowledge that ONLY GRANDMAS KNOW.
I suspect if we had been in person, it would have been amazing.
I did get a recipe out of it and some tips, but I am not feeling confident that I will successfully make injeera when I next try it. But, hey, it's a pandemic project!!
I'm all about those in 2021.