Doubles

Ingredients

• Flour450 g
• Dry yeast7 g
• Turmeric2 tsp
• Sugar1 tsp
• Chickpeas — soaked overnight400 g
• Onion1
• Garlic5 clove
• Ground cumin2 tsp
• Curry powder2 tbsp
• Scotch bonnet1
• Coriander30 g
• Tamarind sauce — to serve100 ml
• Oil for frying600 ml
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water, add the flour, turmeric and salt and knead a soft dough.

   15 min

2. 2

   Let the dough rise somewhere warm for an hour, until doubled.

   62 min

3. 3

   Boil the chickpeas with garlic for an hour, until completely soft.

   62 min

4. 4

   Fry the onion, add the curry powder and cumin, warm them a minute and stir in the chickpeas with half their liquid.

   12 min

5. 5

   Mash a third of the chickpeas in the pot and cook ten minutes to thicken the sauce.

   12 min

6. 6

   Divide the dough into small balls, rest them twenty minutes and flatten them by hand into discs.

   25 min

7. 7

   Fry the baras twenty seconds a side in hot oil; they must stay soft. Put the channa between two baras and serve with tamarind.

   20 min

About the dish

There are exactly two breads, which is where the name comes from. One will not hold the filling, and a single bara goes by a different name in Trinidad.

The dough is yeasted with turmeric and rises twice. The second rise makes the bara soft and chewy rather than crisp — crispness here would be a mistake.

The chickpeas are cooked soft and some are mashed: the sauce should coat rather than pool. Vendors ask "slight or plenty" — how much pepper sauce to add.

Worth knowing

• — Fry the baras fast and lift them out while they are still pale. Browned, they crisp, and softness is what is wanted.
• — The scotch bonnet goes into the pot whole and comes out again. Split, it makes the channa inedible for most people.
• — They are eaten at once, by hand, wrapped in paper. Doubles do not wait — after ten minutes the bread is soaked through.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

18 g

Fat

20 g

Carbs

68 g

More from Trinidad and Tobago

• Callaloo — A thick purée of taro leaves with okra and coconut milk. The Trinidadian Sunday table.
• Trinidad roti — A layered flatbread beaten into rags on the pan, served with chicken or goat curry.
• Pelau — Rice with chicken, pigeon peas and coconut milk, browned in burnt sugar.