Trinidad Doubles

Hello! Welcome back ladies and gents! Doubles is Trinidad’s quintessential street food consisting of some garbanzo beans (channa), sandwiched between two fried, turmeric flavoured, pieces of bread called a bara. If it sounds like heaven, trust me it is. Please watch our video below which supplements this recipe. I hope you enjoy it as I put a lot of effort into writing, producing, directing and editing it. 🙂

Channa/Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans:

Ingredients:

• • 1 pound of channa (washed and pressure cooked)
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon Madras curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin/geera
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
  • 1 tablespoon green seasoning
  • 2 tablespoons chopped pimiento peppers
  • salt to taste
  • 1 tablespoon coconut milk powder (OPTIONAL – as in don’t be that dumb troll who goes off on this ingredient. You can omit if you don’t like.)

Method:

• Add oil to a pot and allow it to heat up.
• Add your curry powder and cumin and cook for about 30 seconds.
• Add your water to it and cook until the water has evaporated and the curry forms a grainy paste.
• Add your garlic, green seasoning, pimientos and salt to taste and cook on low heat until the liquid thickens up.
• When it is almost done, add your coconut milk powder (optional) and stir.
• Turn off the heat.

Bara:

Ingredients:

• • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1.5 to 2 cups lukewarm water
  • 1 tablespoon oil (for the dough)
  • oil for frying

Method:

• Add all your dry ingredients together into a bowl and combine well .
• Add your water a little at a time until your dough is nice and soft.
• Add 1 tablespoon of oil, and continue kneading for a few more seconds, until combined.
• Cover with a damp napkin and leave your dough to proof for about half an hour or so.
• When the dough has risen quite a bit, split it into small dough balls, about 3 inches in diameter.
• On an oiled surface, flatten your dough balls until they are a thin disc-like shape. You want to go as thin as you possibly can without tearing the dough.
• To oil that has been heated, fry these little suckers up. They take a minute or less so watch them carefully.
• Drain on a paper towel.
• Assemble your channa and bara sandwich.
• Add your favourite condiments.
• Enjoy!

Curried Chicken

Hello friends and mostly family who read my blog. Today we are making that staple in almost every Trini household, because who can resist a good curry? I am gonna keep it short and sweet because we have a Youtube video to accompany it is downright silly enough.

Ingredients:

•  4 pounds of chicken – plucked, cleaned out, washed and cut into parts.
• 1 tablespoon green seasoning
• 1 onion – sliced
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper (optional)
• 4 pimiento peppers – chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped chandon beni/cilantro
• 1 teaspoon whole geera/cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground geera
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (madras) curry powder
• 2 teaspoons amchar masala
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tablespoon canola oil
• 3 ¼ cups water

Method:

• Season the chicken with the salt and green seasoning, and allow it to marinate for a few hours.
• In a pot, over medium heat, add the oil and it allow to heat up.
• Add the whole geera and allow it to fry for one minute, so that it flavours the oil.
• Add the curry powder, ground geera, and amchar masala.
• Add quarter cup of water and cook the curry mixture until all the water has evaporated and the paste has become “grain-like” in texture. This step is to ensure that the curry is thoroughly cooked, so that you don’t get the “green” flavour that no one likes.
• Add the chicken and turn the heat down.  Cover the pot, as this will allow the chicken to spring its own juices.
• When this juice is almost dried out, add the onions and pimientos and allow it to cook for one more minute.
• When all the liquid is dried, add the three cups of water allow it to cook until the meat is tender.
• The remaining gravy can be left to your discretion.

Aloo Roti With A Twist

Who doesn’t like a good roti? Hello there! Most of us are familiar with dhalpuri but did you know that roti that you can use other stuffings such as aloo (potato) or peas or channa in your rotis? Today I am jazzing up the old recipe a bit by adding spinach to my dough for an even more flavourful roti.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of potato cubed
• 4 pimiento peppers
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin (geera)
• salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon culantro or cilantro
• 3/4 bag of spinach (you know the kind you get at the grocery and nope never measured it out)
• 4 cups of flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• oil

Method:

Potatoes:

• Boil your potatoes and 2 cloves of garlic in salted water, until tender.
• Drain and set aside.
• Crush pimientos, 2 remaining cloves of garlic and culantro together using a mortar and pestle, while simultaneously alleviating your anger issues. Chop finely if you don’t own one.
• Crush Mash your potatoes and garlic using a potato masher or any heavy object you have on hand. See cooking can be therapeutic! I mean you do spend a significant amount of the time bludgeoning stuff and that way you don’t explode at poor Steve at the office on Monday morning.
• To your potato mixture, add the the crushed pimientos/garlic/culantro mixture.
• Add your ground cumin.
• Add salt to taste.
• Mix well and set aside.

Dough:

• In a pot, add spinach, some water and some salt and cook until wilted.
• Allow it to cool off and puree in a blender until fine.
• Add your flour and baking powder to a bowl and mix together.
• Add your spinach puree and some water into your flour mixture and knead until you dough is pliable.
• Allow the dough to rest for about half hour.

Dough/Potato Combo:

• • After your dough is fully rested – as if it had a day as close to exhausting as you did – portion it into little balls about 3 inches in diameter.
  • Flatten out each piece of dough ball into a small disc about the size of your hand, adding flour to it so that it does not stick to your hand.
  • Add about 2 tablespoons of the potato mixture onto the centre of your disc.
  • Proceed to close the disk by reforming a ball around the potato. It’s all in our Youtube video below if this sounds confusing to you.
  • Now that your potato is safely encased in dough, proceed to roll out said dough with a rolling pin, until you make a flat circle, or a dinosaur shape if that is all you can muster, approximately  10 inches or so in diameter/wide.
  • Get a cooking utensil with a flat surface (maybe a huge pan or a tawa if you have that) and place it on your stove on medium heat.
  • Once it is nice and hot place a thin layer of oil at the bottom of the pan/tawa.
  • Carefully add your dough to it and wait about 45 seconds.
  • Flip it and add some oil to the surface of it using a pastry brush – your dough not the pan.
  • Flip and repeat.
  • Enjoy!

WELL INTENTIONED RATATOUILLE

If you are new here, hello and welcome to my blog! Fair warning, this isn’t your grandma’s blog. I am not sweet, I make the worst jokes and I am training you so you can feed yourself. So if you haven’t left yet, sit back young padawan and learn the ways of the jedi. If you have been with me since the good old days, firstly I am impressed, and secondly welcome back.

Why well intentioned ratatouille you may ask? Well if you look at the picture before it went into the oven (posted below), let’s just say the “spiral” is still giving me ocd nightmares. I got kinda lazy in the end, so my bad. Fibonacci would be rolling in his grave right about now. Thankfully the final version didn’t turn out looking too horribly, but if it didn’t I’m not a real chef anyway so c’est la vie. Anyway enough of that, without further ado:

 

For the sauce that goes to the bottom of the pan:

You can always substitute this sauce with a store bought one but this elevated it up a notch.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion – peeled and diced
• 2 cloves garlic – chopped
• 1 medium carrot – peeled and diced
• 4 large tomatoes – boil for about 10 minutes and then remove the skin and chop up
• 1 medium sweet pepper/green pepper – slow roast, remove skin, chop up.
• 2 leaves fresh basil – torn up
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon parsley – I only had dried flakes on hand but feel free to use fresh ones
• salt to taste
• water as needed

Method:

• On low heat, add olive oil, garlic and onions to a pot and cook for about a minute.
• Add carrots and cook for one more minute. The carrots is a natural sweetener for the sauce so there is no need to add sugar.
• Add the rest of ingredients and cook for about 10 minutes.
• Puree the ingredients so that it looks like the pic above (think Prego Sauce consistency)
• Continue to cook on low heat for about 30 minutes, adding water as needed.

For the vegetables:

Vegetables and other ingredients used in the making of this ratatouille:

• 8 Tomatoes
• 1 large Zucchini
• 1 large Eggplant
• 2 Onions
• Fresh Thyme
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt
• Parmesan Cheese

You can use whatever veggies you please however, it’s your party!

Method:

• You can slice your veggies by hand but I happen to own a mandolin and I am lazy…or maybe I own a mandolin because I am lazy, but I digress.
• Slice the onion on the thinnest setting, roughly 1 mm thick.
• Slice the veggies into roughly 4mm slices and make sure to keep ’em separate for easy assembly. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
• Sprinkle each type of veggie with some olive oil, thyme, a little grated parmesan and a pinch or two of salt.
• Find a dish that is oven safe.
• Add the sauce we made above to the bottom of said dish.
• Add the veggies in the following order – eggplant, tomato, onion, zucchini, tomato, onion, eggplant, tomato, onion, zucchini, tomato, onion, and rinse and repeat until it is all finished and looking like the pic above. Or maybe better than this pic above.
• Cover the dish with foil.
• Bake on 350 for about half hour.
• Remove the foil and roast for a further half hour or until done.
• Enjoy!

NO MACHINE NEEDED, MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM

 

So today we are making this puppy by hand because I don’t own an ice cream maker! This ice cream was so good it shocked me, because in all honesty, I was just experimenting and wasn’t expecting much. And best of all, there are none of the additional preservatives found in the store bought ones. Noticed that I used the word additional. Let’s face it, it isn’t completely preservative free because it is not like I milked a cow myself.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy cream/whipping cream
• 3/4 cup full cream milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (or you can use fresh mint. The closest grocery didn’t have any at the time and I was too lazy to go any further.)
• 1 drop green food colouring gel
• 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chopped into small bits
• Freeze a metal bowl that is coated with water. Make sure you don’t have any extra water pooled inside the bowl because this will just make a chunk of ice that you don’t want.

 

Method:

• In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together until it is a pale yellow, and light and fluffy. I suggest using a mixer but if you want to give your arm a workout with that whisk, who am I to stop you?!
• In a pot, add the milk, cream and vanilla extract and bring to a simmer. Do not boil. I repeat, do not boil.
• Add 1/2 cup of your milk mixture to your egg mixture and continue whisking to temper the eggs.
• Add 1/4 cup more milk to the egg mixture and repeat as above.
• Add the egg mixture to the pot and simmer for about 5 more minutes.
• Remove from heat and add the mint extract and food colouring. Do NOT add the chocolate yet or it will melt.
• Remove the metal bowl from the freezer.
• Pour your custard inside.
• Freeze for about 30 minute or until cool, stirring once or twice in between to help the cooling process,
• Once the mixture is cooled, add your chocolate.
• Return the mixture to the freezer where you will stir every 20 minutes until frozen. This takes a few hours so be patient.
• Enjoy!

Butterbeer from the Harry Potter Series

So last week we brought you pumpkin juice, with flavours reminiscent of apple pie. This week we present Butterbeer! Butterbeer one of the most famous drinks in the Harry Potter series. The one at the Wizarding World Park almost has a dulce de leche meets butterscotch sort of flavour. Our recipe was taken from Hellthy Junk Food except our version is kid friendly – void of alcohol. It is not so much adult friendly though because you will have a very hyper kid on your hand after consuming all that sugar. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 250 mls cream soda (per mug)
• Whipped cream (Optional)

Method:

• Add 1 tbsp of water to one cup of brown sugar.
• On a low to medium heat, bring your mixture to a boil at 250°F. Mine went a little above this so you’re fine if you do. You just want to get your butter and sugar to a cohesive melting point so that it stops looking like an ugly sugary lump and more like a smooth molten liquid. Yes even I experienced the sugary lump. The solution is to turn the heat up just a little. I make the mistakes so you don’t have to lol.
• At this stage, add the butter and mix until incorporated.
• Add the vinegar and stir.
• Add the cream a little at a time and continue stirring until fully incorporated.
• Turn off the stove and allow to cool.
• Pour about a quarter of this mixture into a mug.
• Add your cream soda.
• Add whipped cream.
• Enjoy!!

You can find the recipe on our video link below! Don’t forget to like, subscribe and hit that notification bell. 🙂

 

Pumpkin Juice – Wizarding World Style

If you have ever been to the Wizarding World at Universal Studios and you’ve tried the pumpkin juice, you will know that it is divine. It tastes like apple pie, which sounds weird for something that is a liquid, but trust me it is amazing. If you haven’t tried it and you really want to, this copycat version comes pretty close to being the real deal.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups apple juice – naturally sweetened
• 3/4 cups apricot/peach juice – naturally sweetened
• 1 cup pumpkin juice (recipe below)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup water

Method:

• In a roasting pan, place one half of a ripened medium sized pumpkin cut side down.
• Pour a thin layer of water at the bottom of the pan so that the pumpkin does not burn.
• Roast for 40 minutes on 400 °F or until tender.
• Allow the pumpkin to cool, then remove the skin.
• Puree the pumpkin with together with half cup of water.
• Strain the pumpkin puree and retain 1 cup of the juice.
• In a sauce pan, add your pumpkin juice, apple juice, peach juice, brown sugar, pumpkin spice and brown sugar.
• Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
• Allow it to cool and enjoy!

We have joined YouTube as the Potter Fae! You can find the recipe on the video below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe! And my apologies in advanced for the quality of the baking pan lol. It was the only one I had on hand at that hour.

 

Japanese Curried Chicken

By now you have probably realised that the different Asian countries have different styles of curries and the Japanese are no exception. The thing that sets Japanese curry apart from our Trinidadian curry,  is that it is sweet. It is typically sweetened with honey or fruit. In my case, I used a fresh gala apple, which I pureed.

And yes, I know, the pic I took isn’t the best looking. In retrospect, I should have used a smaller piece of parsley to garnish, or maybe no parsley at all since there is none in the dish. A real chef would tell you that you never garnish with anything that is not a part of the dish, but since I am not a real chef, I don’t need to play by their rules. 😛 And speaking of rules, you typically serve this up with jasmine rice, but I served it up with some delicious Mexican rice and it was amazing.

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 Chicken Breasts – washed and cut in 2 inch cubes
• Canola oil
• 2 tablespoons Madras Curry (yes the one you have in your pantry)
• 1 teaspoon Garam Masala (optional)
• 1 medium onion finely diced
• ¼ cup white wine (optional)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 clove garlic grated
• ½ cup green peas
• 1 small carrot cut into 1 inch rounds
• 1 apple peeled and pureed
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 can chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon finely sliced Chandon Beni/Culantro or Cilantro
• Water
• Salt and pepper to taste

 

Method:

1. Season your chicken with a pinch of salt.
2.  Place a large skillet over high heat, add about a tablespoon of oil, allow it to heat up, then add the chicken and brown for about a minute.
3. Turn off the stove and transfer the chicken to a plate.
4. Once the pan has significantly cooled, add a tablespoon of oil it. (Do not wash the pan. Leave the chicken bits at the bottom as this will add some flavor to the dish.)
5. Turn the heat on low and add some onions to the pan.
6. Cook the onions for about two minutes and then add the wine.
7. Cook for about 5 more minutes, until the onions are sweet and tender and most of the wine is cooked off.
8. Add your garlic, curry and tomato paste. And cook for 2 minutes.
9. Add your chicken, potatoes and carrots and cook for 2 minutes.
10. Add your apple puree and cilantro and cook for 30 seconds.
11. Add your stock.
12. Turn up the heat bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low, cover your pot, and allow to simmer for 25 minutes.
13. In in separate pot add your flour and butter, and whisk on low heat until you have a brown roux, similar to the colour of a Werther’s original candy.  I don’t know what else to put here to explain lol.
14. Add the roux mixture and the green peas to your curry. If it becomes too thick, add some water.
15. Taste for seasons, cook for one more minute and turn off the heat.
16. Go eat, you look hungry!

 

Easy Peasy Pasta Dough

If you have been following my blog, you will know by now that if I have a chance to make something the easy way, I totally take it. This recipe is pretty easy and no fail. It serves about 4 people Now, I could have given you a pretty pic above, but realistically I was dusting corn flour all over the thing so it wouldn’t stick together, and I figured since I am just a makeshift chef I could probably get away with it. My method requires a food processor but you can also make the recipe by hand if you so choose.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour (Because most of us do not have semolina just lying about the house)
• Additional flour for kneading afterward (Don’t worry, this part is easy)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 cup water
• corn flour for dusting the pasta after it is rolled out/cut up- so that it doesn’t stick together.

Method:

1. Crack the eggs, put them into a bowl and beat them – I promise they won’t feel a thing.
2. Get out your food processor, add the flour, the egg mixture, salt and your olive oil and pulse.
3. Once it is well combined, add your water.
4. Pulse again until a dough is formed.
5. Remove the dough. It should be sticky at this point.
6. Put the dough on a floured surface and knead until the dough is pliable but firm enough, that it springs back to the touch.
7. Roll out the dough to your desired thickness and cut into whatever shape you desire.
8. You’re done! Told you it was easy peasy!

 

Shrimp Pastelle!

Ah give him bread and ham, together with a pastelle. Oh hello! Welcome back to my blog. It is Christmas time again. Fun, times! Gifts are wrapped…somewhere…under someone’s tree. Alright corny joke, but this pastelle isn’t THAT corny…unless you count the cornmeal in it. I know, I know, I should have stayed on hiatus with those jokes.

Alright I will spare you any further attempts at a joke and give you my recipe. Now I forwent the traditional chicken/beef/soya pastelle and tried some shrimp pastelle intead, after I saw Samantha J.J.R.’s Instagram videos of her shrimp pastelle in the making. They looked super yummy. I also made a few turkey ones after I ran out of shrimp. Don’t worry. I put enough shrimp in my recipe so you wont run out. Learn from my mistakes. I added pics of both types for your perusal. The one above is shrimp, the below is turkey. Also if that bow in the first pic is giving you OCD problems, you’re in good company. 😛

Firstly, you need banana leaves and foil paper. You can also use banana leaves and string if you wish…kinda like brown paper packages tied up with string, but no one has time for that. So go bug the neighbour for some banana leaves in exchange for 2 of your pastelles and let’s get started.

For the filling:

• 3.5 pounds Shrimp peeled, deveined and minced
• 1/4 cup Capers
• 1/4 cup Raisins – chopped
• 1/4 cup olives – chopped
• 1/4 cup Craisins (Cranberry Raisins) – chopped
• 1/4 cup diced onions
• 1/8 cup diced pimientos
• Fine thyme…an entire tree! I love thyme so I added lots but maybe about a tablespoon might work for you.
• 1 tablespoon Chadon Beni/Culantro/ Cilantro – finely chopped
• 5 cloves garlic – minced
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce << I am pretty sure I misspelt that while typing it but I will have it corrected before I publish and before you read it!
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon bouillon powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon butter.

 

Method:

1. Season your shrimp with ginger and a pinch of salt and set aside.
2. Add the butter, garlic, onions, and pimientos to a large skillet and sauté for 2 minutes on low heat.
3. Add the olives, capers, craisins, raisins and thyme and sauté for another minute.
4. Add the rest of your ingredients (except for the shrimp) and adjust your seasonings. If you need to add some water, do so.
5. Once you are happy with the flavour, turn off the heat, wait three minutes and then add your shrimp.  I have always reiterated that there is nothing worse than rubbery shrimp, and since your pastelle still has to steam after this, the shrimp will finish cooking then.

 

For the dough:

• 3 cups corn meal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon bouillon powder
• black pepper
• 6 tablespoons butter.
• hot water to bind only (the dough should be able to form a ball) In other words, add your water sparingly and do not pour like you are going crazy.

 

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients then add water to bind the dough so that it forms a ball. You are now going to make about 2.5 inch round balls until your dough is used up.

 

Making the pastelle:

• Take the banana leaf and heat it over the stove so that it gets bendy. You need to do this because your pastelle is essentially a package waiting to be wrapped in the leaf.
• Once this is done, cut off the middle of the leaf and discard, keeping the leafy portion only.
• Cut into squares – abt 9 inches. Cut your foil into the same size.
• Take one of the dough balls and place on your leaf.
• Spread out the dough until it is about a 1/8 inch thick circle, using a rolling pin and some saran wrap between the dough and the rolling pin. Some people use oil so that the dough would not stick to the banana leaf.  I used zero oil and mine however and it did not stick at all, so I am not sure how necessary the oil is.
• Add your filling.
• Using the banana leaf fold over the dough until a cornmeal package is formed around filling.
• After this, wrap up the cornmeal package, using the same piece of banana leaf. Now you’ve got a corn meal package, inside a banana leaf package.
• Then wrap the banana leaf in foil. Now you have a package inside a package, inside a package on your hands…packageception. I am sure I added one too many packages to that description, but you get the point.
• Finish all of them using this method.
• Steam for 30 minutes.
• Eat.