Our chefs' recipes: the Traditional Eritrean “ZIGNI with INJERA”!

Discover each month a traditional recipe from one of our chefs!

This month, Ali Hussein Mohammed, chef of our Eritrean branch, presents us with the traditional recipe for ZIGNI with INJERA.

ZIGNI (beef stew) is considered the national dish of Eritrea and is the staple dish of the local population. Rich and tasty, the base is a mixture of spices, known as 'Berber', which is cooked for a long time in tomatoes to let the flavours develop.
It is often served with INJERA, a traditional sour, spongy and delicious bread.
Made from a cereal called teff, which has a high nutritional value, Injera is naturally gluten-free and light on the stomach.

Ingredients Zigni (8 pers)

1 cup canola oil
2.5 lbs. beef cubed
2 onions diced finely
4 sweet peppers very finely diced
4 tomatoes very finely diced
2 Tablespoons garlic cloves minced
Ingredients Injera (8 pers)
1/2 cup teff flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions Zigni

1. In a large pot heat up the oil and add in the beef, cook a few minutes until browned and add in
the onions. Cook together just a couple of minutes and add in all the other ingredients except for
the berbere, ghee or nitter kibbeh, and minced garlic. Stir everything together and cook covered on
medium heat for two hours.
2. Add in the berbere seasoning, ghee or nitter kibbeh and minced garlic, stir, cover and cook for
another 5 minutes.
3. Serve warm over injera.

Instructions Injera :

1. Put the teff flour in a large mixing bowl and sift in the all-purpose flour. Start adding in the water,
slowly, stir to avoid any lumps. Cover with plastic wrap or lid and set aside at room temperature for 3
days.
2. The mixture will become bubbly and frothy. If it doesn't look like it is fermenting after the first day
you can add a teaspoon of dry yeast.
3. After three days, stir the salt into the batter.
4. Heat a nonstick pan, or lightly oil a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
5.The batter will be the consistency of pancake batter, use a ladle and begin to make a circle in the
middle of the pan. You want the injera batter to coat the surface of the pan evenly. The batter will start
to form holes, it is done when the batter is cooked through and easily lifts at the edges, you do not flip
the bread.
6. Remove it and let cool, and continue until all the batter has been cooked.
7. Line a platter with the injera and serve with the wat's on top.
8. you rip off a piece of injera and use it to scoop up the wat. It is the utensil.

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