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Doubles: photo of the dish
Illustrative photo: Grueslayer — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Everyday meals

Doubles

Trinidad's iconic street food: two bara, small turmeric-spiced flatbread fritters, wrapped around a curried chickpea filling. Lifted with chadon beni and tamarind, it is eaten standing up, from first thing in the morning to late in the day.

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Ingredients

Ingredients

Bara

Chatouille

Spices & seasoning

Optional extras

Instructions

  1. Mix the flour, baking powder, turmeric, whole cumin and a pinch of salt. Add the warm water little by little to form a soft, smooth dough. Cover and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, make the chatney: finely chop the tomato, half the chilli and the coriander, then mix with the lime juice and a pinch of salt.
  3. For the chickpeas, sweat the sliced onion and garlic for 3 minutes in the oil, add the curry powder and toast for 1 minute.
  4. Add the drained chickpeas, half a cup of water, the rest of the chilli whole, the sugar and salt. Mash some of the chickpeas and simmer for 10 minutes until thick.
  5. Divide the dough into 8 balls. Flatten them into discs about 10 cm across, then fry in oil at 180 °C, 1 to 2 minutes per side, until golden and puffed.
  6. Drain the bara, fill each one with hot chickpeas and a spoonful of chatney, fold over and serve straight away.

Variations and tips

Spicier. Add a second chilli to the filling and more chatney, in the spirit of the streets of Port of Spain.

No frying. Cook the bara dry in a very hot pan, 2 minutes per side, pressing them lightly.

More ideas

Original Ecomely recipe.