Kocho

The pulp is fermented for months before it is ever cooked.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 2 kg enset pseudo-stem and corm, scraped and grated
• 1 teaspoon dried yeast, or 200 g pulp from a previous ferment
• 2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. THE PULP IS FERMENTED FOR MONTHS BEFORE IT IS EVER COOKED. Its article gives the timescale twice and it is the whole dish: the pith IS COLLECTED, PULPED, AND MIXED WITH YEAST BEFORE BEING FERMENTED FOR THREE MONTHS TO TWO YEARS, and THE STEM IS POUNDED TO EXTRACT THE PULP, WHICH IS THEN FERMENTED FOR SEVERAL WEEKS BEFORE BEING COOKED. Nothing a cook does in a day is this bread.
2. WHICH MAKES IT A STORE AS MUCH AS A FOOD. The article records that it CAN BE STORED UNDERGROUND FROM THREE MONTHS TO TWELVE MONTHS, MAKING IT A READY SOURCE OF NUTRITION DURING PERIODS OF FOOD SCARCITY. The ferment is the preserving.
3. IT IS THE SCRAPED SHEATH AND THE PULVERISED CORM, NOT THE FRUIT. The article is specific: MADE FROM THE SCRAPED LEAF SHEATH FIBRE AND PULVERISED CORM OF THE ENSET PLANT. Enset is the false banana and its fruit is not eaten.
4. SCRAPE THE SHEATHS AND GRATE THE CORM, THEN POUND IT TOGETHER. The article's word is pounded, and the aim is a wet fibrous mash rather than a purée.
5. MIX THE YEAST THROUGH AND PACK IT DOWN HARD. Air is the enemy of a long ferment. Press it into a lined pit or a crock until the surface weeps.
6. COVER IT AND LEAVE IT. Three months is the shortest the article allows, and two years the longest. It sours steadily and the texture tightens.
7. WHEN IT COMES OUT, KNEAD THE SALT THROUGH AND FLATTEN IT ONTO A HOT GRIDDLE. Fifteen to twenty minutes a side over a low heat, covered: it is dense and it cooks slowly.
8. IT HAS A SOUR TASTE AND A DENSE, DOUGH-LIKE TEXTURE, which is the article's own description, and it is used in place of or alongside injera.
9. IT IS ALSO THE UTENSIL. The article notes it is TYPICALLY USED AS A UTENSIL TO SCOOP UP OTHER FOODS, and names kitfo, as on its own page, gomen and ayibe as what it is eaten with.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Ethiopia · All recipes