Trinidadian Doubles

About This Recipe

Doubles are Trinidad and Tobago's beloved street breakfast: two soft, yellow-tinted fried flatbreads called bara, folded around a saucy, well-spiced curried chickpea filling known as channa. The bara is leavened with yeast and tinted with turmeric and ground geera (cumin), giving it both its color and its earthy aroma. The channa is simmered low and slow with garlic, scotch bonnet, and curry powder until the chickpeas just begin to break down. Vendors top each portion with a spoon of tamarind chutney, fresh chadon beni (culantro), and as much pepper sauce as you can handle. Eaten standing up from a square of wax paper, doubles are the dish Trinis crave at 6 am after a fete and at midnight on the way home.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 300 gall-purpose flour
• 1.5 tspinstant yeast
• 1 tspground turmeric
• 1 tspground geera (cumin)
• 0.5 tspsugar
• 1 tspfine salt
• 200 mlwarm water
• neutral oil for frying
• 400 gdried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or 800g cooked)
• 4 clovesgarlic, minced
• 1 tbspTrinidadian curry powder
• 1 tspground geera
• 1scotch bonnet pepper, whole and pricked
• 2 tbspneutral oil
• 1 tspsalt
• 2 tbsptamarind paste, mixed with 60ml water and 1 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbspfresh chadon beni or cilantro, chopped
• scotch bonnet pepper sauce, to serve

Instructions

1. 1

   Make bara dough

   Whisk flour, yeast, turmeric, geera, sugar, and salt. Add warm water and 1 tbsp oil; stir to a soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead 5 minutes. Cover and rise 1.5 hours until doubled.

   The dough should feel tackier than pizza dough — that's what gives bara its pillow texture.

2. 2

   Start channa

   Drain soaked chickpeas. In a pot, heat 2 tbsp oil. Add garlic and bloom 30 seconds. Stir in curry powder and geera; cook 1 minute until fragrant and the spices look toasted.

3. 3

   Simmer

   Add chickpeas, salt, scotch bonnet, and water to cover by 3 cm. Simmer 50–60 minutes until very tender and the liquid reduces to a thick, gravy-like consistency. Lightly mash about a quarter of the chickpeas to thicken.

4. 4

   Divide dough

   Punch down and divide into 12 walnut-sized balls. Oil your hands and the work surface; rest balls 10 minutes covered with a damp cloth.

5. 5

   Shape bara

   Flatten each ball with oiled palms into a 10 cm round, 3 mm thick. Keep them rounds, not perfect circles — rustic is right.

6. 6

   Fry bara

   Heat 2 cm of oil to 180°C in a wide pan. Slip in bara two at a time. Fry 20–25 seconds per side until puffed and just set — do not brown. Drain on paper.

   Frying too long makes bara crispy and wrong; you want soft, foldable, blonde-yellow rounds.

7. 7

   Make tamarind sauce

   Stir tamarind, water, and sugar with a pinch of salt until smooth and pourable.

8. 8

   Assemble

   Place a bara on wax paper. Spoon 3 tbsp warm channa on top. Drizzle tamarind. Add pepper sauce to taste and a pinch of chadon beni. Top with a second bara.

9. 9

   Serve immediately

   Eat with hands, leaning forward — doubles are meant to drip. Pair with a cold mauby or sorrel drink.

Variations

• •

  Aloo doubles: add diced potato to the channa for the heavier vendor-style version.

• •

  Slight: lighter version with just a single bara folded over.

• •

  Add cucumber chutney for a brighter, fresher topping balance.

Storage

Channa keeps 3 days refrigerated and freezes well. Bara is best fresh; refresh leftover bara wrapped in foil for 4 minutes at 160°C — never microwave (they go rubbery).

Frequently Asked Questions