Trinidad Doubles
INDIAN · CHINA

Trinidad Doubles

DoublesSnack

Two soft, turmeric-gold bara clapped around a pile of curried chana, finished with tamarind, garlic and pepper sauce and a spoonful of cucumber chow. Trinidad's greatest street breakfast, eaten standing up with a napkin you'll need.

Total
75 min
Heat
3/5
Serves
4

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Flavour profile

Heat
Funk
Acid
Richness
Umami
  • Savoury
  • Silky
  • Sour
  • Spicy

The real deal

Region
Trinidad and Tobago, via Indo-Caribbean indentured labourers from Bhojpuri India.
Technique
Soft yeasted bara fried till they puff and stay pale, clapped around stewed chana and dressed to order.
We kept
Turmeric bara, cumin-heavy chana, tamarind and pepper sauces, cucumber chow — no shortcuts.

Ingredients

4 Serves

bara

  • 400 g
  • 2 tsp
  • 1 tsp
  • 1 tsp
  • 1 tsp
  • 1½ tsp
  • to taste
  • 550 ml · warm
  • 6 tbsp · warm
  • 1 tbsp · for deep frying
  • 1 l · for deep frying

chana

  • 800 g · drained, rinsed
  • 3 cloves · crushed
  • 3 cm · grated
  • 1 · finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp
  • 1 tsp
  • ½ tsp · cracked
  • 3 · sprigs
  • 1 · optional · whole, pierced
  • 3 tbsp · optional · chopped, for finishing

tamarind sauce

  • 4 tbsp
  • 2 tbsp

garlic sauce

  • 4 cloves · for the sauce

chow

  • 1 · thinly sliced
  • 1
  • 1 · optional · finely chopped

Method

  1. Whisk , , , , and in a big bowl. Pour in 300 ml and work it with your hand into a soft, sticky, shaggy dough — it should cling to your fingers, not come clean off them. Cover the bowl and leave the dough somewhere warm until it has roughly doubled and smells of yeast, about 1 h.

    Too stiff a dough gives tough bara. It should be wetter than bread dough.

  2. Heat a little of the frying oil in a pot over medium heat, add , and and cook until soft and sweet, about 5 min. Stir in , and and fry for 1 min until the spices smell toasted, not raw. Add the , , the whole and enough water to just cover. Simmer, mashing a few chickpeas against the side, until thick and tender, about 25 min.

    The pierced scotch bonnet gives flavour without blowing the pot apart — leave it whole.

  3. Work with 2 tbsp , a good pinch of and enough warm water to loosen it into a pourable sweet-sour sauce. Taste: it should make you wince slightly. Crush 4 cloves with a pinch of and a splash of water into a loose, sharp garlic sauce. Toss with the juice of 1 , a pinch of and the chopped . Keep it cold and crunchy.

  4. Heat 1 l to 170 °C in a deep pot. Wet your hand, pinch off a golf-ball of bara dough, flatten it into a thin disc and slide it in. Fry a few at a time until they puff and turn pale gold, about 1 min 30 sec, turning once. Drain on paper.

    Keep the oil moderate — too hot and the bara colour before the middle cooks, leaving a raw, doughy centre.

  5. Fish the out of the curried chana and mash the chana a little more so it's thick enough to sit on a bara without running off. Stir through the .

  6. Put two bara on a plate and clap them once between your palms so the middles stick. Spoon over a generous pile of the finished chana, then drizzle tamarind sauce, the garlic sauce and as much pepper sauce as you dare. Top with a spoonful of cucumber chow and eat immediately, standing up.

    Don't overfill — the whole point is that it's messy but the bara holds.

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