Authentic Trinidadian Recipes – The Makeshift Chef (2024)

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!

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!

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.

The recipe for this quintessential Trinidadian staple has been long overdue on this blog. Pelau is the perfect analogy to describe Trinidad. It is a mix of ingredients to make a one pot dish. Similarly, Trinis are a blend of races all living on our beautiful tropical isle. Itisthe caribbean version of Jambalaya except that I like pelau much, much better. It is a dish that starts off with caramelised sugar as its baseand ends up as a savoury concoction instead,believe it or not.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 5 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 poundschicken cut into pieces and seasoned with 1 tablespoonGreen Seasoning,1 teaspoon salt,1/2 teaspoon finely grated ginger
• 2 cups rice – washed
• 1 cup carrots – diced
• 1 cup canned ORfresh pre-boiled pigeon peas
• 4 pimiento peppers – sliced
• 1 medium onion – sliced
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped chadon beni/culantro/cilantro
• 3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
• 1/4 cup water
• 40 grams coconut milk powder (optional)
• 5 to 6 cups water
• salt to taste

Method

• In a big pot, add 3 tablespoons canola oil.
• Turn on your stoveto medium-high heat.
• Wait for about 2 minutes or until the oil is hot and add 5 tablespoons brown sugar.
• Allow your sugar to carameliseand become a shade 0r 2 darker than golden brown. Stir your sugar throughout this process to ensure an even distribution of heat so that your sugar doesn’t burn.
• It should look like this when ready:

• Carefully add your chicken at this stage and stir.
• Turn your heat down to medium low and allow your chicken to stew in its own juices for about 10 minutes or so.
• After about 10 minutes, add your rice and stir. Cook for about a minute.
• Add your peas, carrots, onions, pimientos, chadon beni and garlic, stir and cook for another minute.
• Add a 1/4 cup water and 40 grams coconut milk powder and stir.
• Cook until the water has evaporatedso that the flavour is better infused into your dish.
• Add 5 to 6 cups of water and cook until your rice is tender and the liquid has evaporated.
• Adjust seasonings.
• Enjoy.

Dhalisa Trinidadian household staple. Everyone in my house loves this stuff…everyone except for yours truly that is. I am not gonna lie to you, I am not a fan. I do eatit from time to time, I just do not love it. However, since the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one…and yes I did quote Spock, who seemed to have lived by utilitarian principles, go figure…I will give you the recipe.

Dhal is a split peas soup of sorts…that is if you like bite sized pieces of cumin in your soup. It is mainly used as a side dish, in the same manner you would use peas with your rice or roti or whatever. I personally love it with fried caraille (bitter gourd) and rice. Yes I can see you cringing your face from behind your screen but I loveee caraille.

Btw, before I forget, The Makeshift Chef is now on Instagram so feel free to followmethere!

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup split peas (washed)
• 6 cups water
• 1 medium sizedonion – sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 3cloves garlic (whole)
• 2 cloves garlic (sliced)
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin (geera)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 pimiento peppers (sliced)
• Hot pepper to taste (optional)
• Salt to taste

Method

• In a pot add your split peas, hot pepper, onion, pimientos, water, 3 cloves of whole garlic and about a teaspoon of salt. (At this stage you can’t taste anything so you can always adjust your salt content later on.)
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium low and boil for about an hour or until the split peas grains are tender.
• Turn off the stove.
• Usinganimmersion blender, pulverise your dhal concoction. When you are finished,it should be a smooth soup-like consistency…like a thin-medium thicknesssoup i.e. not too thin where it is watery ornot too thick where it is like porridge. If it is too thick, add some water, turn on the stove, bring to a boil and turn the stove back off.
• You can also adjust your salt at this stage.
• In a very small pot, add your canola oil, whole cumin and 2 cloves sliced garlic.
• Heat on medium heat until the garlic is golden brown and your cumin is fragrant.
• Here comes the tricky part so be careful. You have the add the hot oil, garlic and cumin to the pot of dhal.
• Get a pot lid. This is going to act as your shield. Just pretend you’re playing Legend of Zelda or something. Using one hand, hover the lid about a foot over the pot with the dhal.
• With your free hand, hold the pot with the hot oil and pour it SLOWLY into the dhal mixture using your “shield” to protect you. Don’t you feel like a hero!
• Mix well.
• Enjoy while I go make something I actually want to eat. 😛

Until next time,

Corn soup is a hearty soup, beloved by the locals and sought after by those who come to visit our twin islands. This triple threat is filling, good for you and tastes amazing too!

Confession time! I had not made this soup for a long, long time prior to this, so I basically tossed the ingredients together without measuring a thing. While I had a pretty good average of most of the ingredients, the measurement of water for this dish escapesme.I did my best to put in an average amount for you, so please bear with me. Thanks much! Xoxo!

Ingredients

For the soup

• 3/4cup split peas/dhal
• 1 medium carrot peeled and sliced into 1/2inch pieces
• 2 ears of corn on the cob sliced into 2inch pieces
• 3/4cupwhole kernel corn
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1 stalkcelery – diced (This is the kind that you get with your buffalo wings.)
• 3 pimiento peppers – diced
• 3/4 cup pumpkin – diced
• 1whole garlic clove
• 3 cloves garlic – grated
• 1 teaspoon ginger – grated
• 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 tablespoonbouillon powder
• 1 tablespoon chadon beni or cilantro- finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon chives – finely chopped
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 10cups water (approximately)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon canola oil

For the dumplings

• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup water

Method

• In a separate pot, add 3cups of water,split peas, turmeric, a teaspoon of salt and one clove of garlic and bring to a boil.
• Cover the pot and boil the split peas onmedium heatfor roughly 40minutes or so, adding more water if necessary.
• Afteryour split peas has been cooking for 35 minutes, in another pot, on lowheat, add 1 tablespoon canola oil, 3 tablespoons garlic, 1 teaspoon of ginger and sauté for 1 minute.
• Add the onions andsauté for an additional minute.
• Add the carrots, pumpkin, pimientos, whole kernel corn, celery, chadon beni, chives and thyme and sauté for 2 more minutes.
• Add the pre-boiled split peas.
• Add the6cups of water, bouillon powder, and coconut milk.
• Turn up the heat and bring to a boil.
• Turn the heat to low once it comes to a boil, and allow the ingredients to simmer.
• After about 25minutes, add the sliced corn on the cob and allow the soup to simmer for about 20more minutes. Add more water if necessary.
• In the meantime, mix together your dumpling mixture to form a soft dough by combining the water, baking powder, flour and corn meal. Set aside.
• Fish out the corn cobs and the thyme sprigs after the 20minutes of cooking. Set the corn aside and discard the thyme.
• Blend the remaining liquid and ingredients withan immersion blender until you have achieved a puree.
• Using a spoon, drop 1 inch pieces of the dumpling mixture into the soup.
• Simmerfor 5 minutes.
• Add the corn, salt and pepper to taste.
• Simmer for 5 more minutes.
• Enjoy!

Much like thetomatoes chokadish that I made last time, baigan choka is made with eggplant that is roasted either over an open flame, or in the oven. If you are eggplant lover, this dish is a must for you.

It is a similar dish to baba ghanoush, in that they are both roasted eggplant dishes, however the way they are seasoned is where the similarity stops. Whereas withbaba ghanoush one would use tahini pasteandparsley for itsbeautiful,distinctflavours, our Caribbean dish uses hot oil, peppers and onions to give it its wonderfully unique flavours.

Recipe

1 large eggplant
1clove of garlic(peeled)
1 smallonion (peeled)
2 tablespoons canola oil
hot pepper to taste
salt to taste.

Method

You can either roast your eggplanton a (gas) stove top or in the oven. Firstly however, you are going to make a slit in your eggplant and place your clove of garlic snugly inside it, so that the garlic is no longer visible.

Stove Top Method

1. Cut a piece of foil, (roughly 14 inches), fold it in half and place it on your stove top.

2. Place the eggplant on it and turn your stove on the highest setting.

3. Starting at one end,let the eggplantroast for about 5 minutes before shifting the eggplant ever so slightly to the next uncooked part. Be careful not to burn yourself. You may want to turn the stove off during shifting.

4. Repeat the process for each uncooked part until the entire side is cooked.

5. CAREFULLY flip the eggplant over, so that the otherside can beroasted as well, using the same technique as described above.

Oven Method

1. Set your oven to broil – 500 degrees fahrenheit.

2. Place the eggplanton a roasting tray.

3. Place the tray in the oven.

4. Broil until the eggplant is tender.

5. Remove from the oven and turn the eggplant over.

6. Place the tray back into the oven and continue broiling until the entire eggplant is tender/fully cooked. You can use a fork to test this.

Now that your eggplant isroasted:

1. Cut the eggplant open,scoop out all of the flesh and the garlic and discard the skin.

2. Add salt to taste and set aside.

3. Using a fork, mash the eggplant and the garlic together and set aside.

4.Thinly slice the onion and hot pepper.

5. In a pan, place the onion, pepper and oil.

6. Turn your stove on a low heat setting and place the pan over the it.

7.Cook until the onions are translucent and have lost their harsh bite.

8. Add all of the contents of the pan, including the oil, carefully to the eggplant, while it is still hot.

9. Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy!

Tomatoes choka is a dish in its own right but if I had to describe it to a non-Trini, I would say that it is akin to a roasted tomato salsa. This stuff is amazing as a side dish to your roti or curries. It is a really simple dish using basic everyday ingredients that you find in your fridge, but the end result is super yummy! Tomatoes arealsorich in lycopene (a powerful antioxidant) so this proves great tasting isn’t always all that bad for you!

In the traditional version of tomatoes choka, you heat up about a tablespoon of oil at the very end and add it to the dish. Now, you can most certainly dothat if you wish to, butcome on, do you really need that extra bit of oil? I don’t!

Recipe

8 medium tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
1 medium onion (unpeeled)
1 hot pepper
1 tablespoon chadon beni/culantro/cilantro finely chopped
salt to taste.

Method

So this is the lazy girl’s method for easy-peasy cleanup, because I guarantee you that if you go the really old fashioned route, you will be scrubbing your stove top for a while later, and frankly, who needs that kind of work?

You can either roast your ingredients on a (gas) stove top or in the oven.

Stove Top Method

1. Cut a piece of foil, (roughly 14 inches), fold it in half and place it on your stove top.

2. Place 4 of the tomatoes on the foil and turn on the stove to a medium-low setting.

3. Let the tomatoes slowly roast, turning as you go. The slower you go, the sweeter the payoff. 😉 Charring on the outside is good. Of course you don’t want burnt tomatoes, so please monitor as you go. You want to roast them until the tomatoes are nice and tender.

4. Repeat the process for the rest of the ingredients with the exception of the chadon beni/cilantro.

Oven Method

1. Set your oven to broil – 500 degrees fahrenheit.

2. Place all the ingredients –with the exception of the chadon beni/cilantro – on a roasting tray.

3. Place the tray in the oven.

4. Broil until the top of the tomatoes are a medium brown colour.

5. Remove from the oven and flip over all ingredients.

6. Place the tray back into the oven and continue broiling until the tomatoes are tender.

Now that your ingredients are all roasted:

1. Remove the skins from your onion and garlic.

2. Add ALL the ingredients to a blender and pulse a few times.

3. Empty into a bowl, add salt to taste and enjoy.

OR

If you don’t like the blender method, get out your pestle or whatever poundy thing you own!

1. Cut your onion into thin slices (after you’ve peeled it of course.)

2. Toss the onion, chandon beni/cilantro andpepper into a bowl and give it a bit of a pounding. Did I mention that this is a great stress reliever?

3. In a separate bowl, pound the daylights out of each tomato, one at a time, until you have the consistency of a puree. As you have finished each one, addit to the bowl with the onionsand garlic and move on to the next until you have finished the last tomato.

4. Add salt, mix everything up and have fun eating it!

Happy Easter folks. A Caribbean staple, saltfish buljol is a classic with vibrant colours and equally bold flavours.

Recipe

• 2 cups boneless saltfish (cod)
• 5 cups water
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup diced onions
• 1 medium carrot – unpeeled
• 3 medium tomatoes (finely diced)
• 1/4 cup green peppers(finely diced)
• 1/8 cup finely chopped chadon beni/culantro or cilantro
• 1/8 cup finely chopped chivesor cilantro
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• hot pepper – chopped (to taste) This is optional

Method

• Rinse all of the salt off the saltfish under cold running water.
• Add the saltfish, 5 cups water and the whole, unpeeled carrot to a pot and boil for about 10 minutes. This process is to get the excess salt out of the saltfish while simultaneouslyinfusing some flavour into the carrot.
• After boiling, drain and rinse both the salfish and the carrot under cold running water.
• Shred the saltfish.
• Add the lemon juice to the saltfish andtoss lightly.
• Peel the carrot and dice.
• Add the salfish, diced carrots, tomatoes, diced onion, green peppers, chadon beni, chives, celery and hot pepper to a bowl and toss together.
• In a large skillet heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons canola oil together, to a very high temperature.
• Turn off the heat and very carefully, slowly drizzle the hot oil over the the buljol mix and stir.
• Transfer the pot back to the stove, turn the heat on low, add the buljol to the pot and a cook for a minute. This step is not to meant cook the ingredients,but to infuse allthe flavors together. Of course you can also skip this step and stop after the previous step if you wish.
• Serve with fried bake
• Bon apetite.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…And while my singing needs a helluvallotta work, I am very happy to report that my very first attempt (ever) atPonche De Crème doesn’t! ^.^ Ponche De Crème, for those who don’t know, is an alcoholic beverage that is generally made by Trinis during the Christmas season.I was aiming for a warm spicy, creamy flavour without being overpowering, so I modified the original version a tiny bit and I explained why in the method.

Recipe:

• Temper your eggs and sugar over a hot bath. You are going to do this by placing your eggs and sugar in a bowl, and then placing the bowl over a pot of simmering boiling water.
• You are then going to whisk away until your sugar is completely melted. This step is to ensure your eggs do not overcook and form big clumps. Instead, you get a smooth as silk liquid when you are done.
• Remove from the heat.
• Add your cream, evaporated milk, condensed milk, bitters, whiskey, nutmeg, vanilla and lime zest and whisk thoroughly.
• The main reason I chose whisky/Angostura red rum over the white rum is because I like the depth of flavour it gives to it. I think that the spicy undertones of the reds work better with the flavours of the punch than the white alcohol. I find that the white just adds the taste of pure alcohol. You of course can use whatever alcohol you like, this is just my preference. I tend to go by the, “if you won’t drink it, don’t cook with it” rule.
• This is going to yield about 1 and 3/4 litres, so if you wish you can use an empty soft drink bottle that has been thoroughly rinsed out to store and refrigerate.
• If you are going to use immediately, serve over ice.

As usual, enjoy!