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Doubles
Trinidad's street breakfast: two soft, turmeric-gold fried bara filled with curried channa, tamarind sauce, cucumber chutney and pepper (dough rises 1½ hours)
Doubles are Trinidad's favourite street food, sold from carts at dawn on corners from Curepe to San Fernando and said to have started in Princes Town in the 1930s. Two pieces of bara, a soft, puffy fried flatbread coloured with turmeric, are piled with soft curried chickpeas (channa), then spooned with sweet tamarind sauce, cool cucumber chutney, shado beni sauce and as much pepper sauce as you dare ('slight' or 'heavy'). They're messy, cheap and wonderful, eaten standing up from a square of paper. These are different from Indian chole bhature: the bara is light and yeasty, the channa is cooked very soft in Caribbean curry, and the toppings are sweet, sour and fiery all at once. Chef's tip: keep the bara dough very soft and wet, and handle it only with oiled hands. Stretch each ball thin over your fingers and slide it straight into the hot oil, so it puffs light and stays soft instead of turning into a crisp puri.
- Total time
- 120 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
For the bara
For the curry channa
For the toppings
Method
0/10 doneStep 1: Make the bara: whisk 1 ⅛ lb plain flour, 2 tsp instant yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 1 ½ tsp ground turmeric, 1 tsp ground geera (cumin) and 1 tsp salt in a large bowl. Add most of 1 ½ cups lukewarm water and mix with your hand to a very soft, sticky dough, adding the rest if needed. It should be wetter than bread dough. Beat it against the bowl for 3–4 minutes until smoother and stretchy.
5 minStep 2: Rub the dough and the bowl with a little of 2 tbsp vegetable oil, cover and leave somewhere warm for 1–1½ hours, until doubled and bubbly.
80 minStep 3: Meanwhile, make the channa: heat 3 tbsp vegetable oil in a heavy pot over a medium heat and cook 1 onion for 4 minutes until soft. Add 6 cloves garlic for 30 seconds.
Step 4: Mix 2 tbsp Trinidad or Caribbean curry powder and 1 tsp ground geera (cumin) with 4 tbsp of the 3 cups water to a paste. Add it to the pot and fry, stirring, for 2–3 minutes, until it darkens, smells toasty and the oil separates. Trinis call this 'chunkaying' the curry, and it's what stops the channa tasting raw and dusty.
3 minStep 5: Add 1 ¾ lb tinned chickpeas and stir to coat, then add the rest of the water and 1 tsp salt. Simmer, partly covered, for 30–35 minutes, stirring now and then, until the chickpeas are very soft and some have broken down into a thick, loose gravy. Crush some with the back of the spoon; doubles channa should be soft and saucy, not firm. Stir in 2 tbsp shado beni (culantro) or coriander and ½ tsp amchar masala and keep warm.
35 minStep 6: Make the cucumber chutney: mix ½ cucumber, 1 clove garlic and 1 pinch salt.
Step 7: Heat 1 litre vegetable oil in a deep pan to 350°F: a pinch of dough should rise immediately with lively bubbles.
Step 8: Oil your hands well. Pinch off a piece of dough the size of a walnut (about 35 g) and, on an oiled board or your oiled palm, pat and stretch it into a thin round 10–12 cm across. Don't worry about perfect circles.
Step 9: Slide it into the oil, away from you. It should float and puff within seconds. Fry for 15–20 seconds a side, just until it puffs and turns pale golden, then lift out and drain in a colander lined with kitchen paper. Bara should stay soft and floppy, so don't let it go crisp or brown. Repeat with the rest, keeping the fried bara covered with a cloth so they stay soft.
25 minStep 10: To serve, overlap two bara, spoon a big scoop of channa on top, and add ½ cup tamarind sauce, the cucumber chutney, 4 tbsp mango kuchela or chutney and 2 tbsp hot pepper sauce to taste. Eat straight away, folding one bara over the top like a sandwich.
2 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 560 kcal
- Protein
- 17 g
- Carbs
- 89 g
- Fat
- 16 g
- Fibre
- 11 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does doubles take?
- About 120 minutes in total: 30 minutes to prepare and 90 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegan?
- Yes. It has no meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
- Is it very spicy?
- It has some heat. Use less chilli for a milder version, or more if you like it hot.
- What can I use instead of plain flour?
- Self-raising flour, same amount (then leave out the baking powder).
- What can I use instead of sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
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