Doubles

While brainstorming “tropical” things to cook for dinner on the night of the hurricane, Matt thought of a dish he had tried called Doubles. They’re a street food from Trinidad and Tobago that he described to me as spicy, curried chickpeas sandwiched between fried flatbreads and served with a variety of hot sauces and chutneys. I was sold.

We threw together a probably not-very-authentic but extremely tasty version of Chana Masala as the filling, and then found a recipe for the fried bread, which are called “bara,” on Saveur. For sauces, we used both a store-bought chutney and Jamaican jerk hot sauce. It was a perfect thing to cook on a (very) rainy day.

Doubles

For the Filling

Vegetable oil
½ a yellow onion, chopped
1 fresno chili pepper, seeds removed and minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 ½ tsp. garam masala
1 ½ tsp. chili powder
Shake of turmeric
2 tbsp. whole milk yogurt
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 can of chickpeas, drained
Handful of cilantro, chopped

Start by sautéing the onion in some oil over medium heat. When it starts to soften, add the fresno chili, garlic, and ginger. Let this cook for a couple of minutes until softened, and then add the cumin, garam masala, chili powder, and turmeric. Cook for another minute or so, until the spices are fragrant. Add the yogurt and tomato paste. Let this mixture cook down so that it resembles a paste (about five minutes).

Add the chickpeas and just barely cover with water.

Let the mixture cook until the chickpeas are heated through. Then, scoop out roughly a half cup of the mixture and blend.

Return the blended chickpea mixture back to the pot.

At this point, you just want to cook it until the flavors come together. We let it sit on the stove while we cooked the bread, adding a little bit of water here and there if it dried out too much. Add the fresh cilantro at the very end before serving.

For the Bread
(Adapted from Saveur)

1 cups flour
1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1 ¾ tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. sugar
3/8 c. water

Whisk together the flour, years, turmeric, salt, and sugar. Add the water and mix with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Lightly oil the dough and transfer to a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, transfer to a warm place, and let it rise for about 1 ½ hours.

After it has risen, divide the dough into 8 1-ounce portions and form into balls. Press each ball until it resembles a thin disk.

Heat some vegetable oil to about 325 degrees and fry the bread one portion at a time, flipping once, for about 30 seconds total.

Transfer the breads to a paper towel lined tray and sprinkle with salt while they’re still hot.

Assembling

I assembled all four “sandwiches” before serving and put them on a platter, but you could also just make them as you go.

We topped our doubles with a drizzle of jerk sauce and a nice heap of mango chutney. It was a spicy, sweet, and crunchy combination of goodness!

Brunch: Biscuits and Eggs

Matt took an overnight bus from New York last Saturday, so I made us brunch while he caught up on some sleep: scrambled eggs with chives, homemade biscuits with pepper jelly, and sliced heirloom tomatoes that my neighbor gave us from her garden. I also may have felt a little bad for being too tired and cranky to pick him up from the T at 6am :)


When I was living in New York, Matt and I got a little tired of the over-priced brunch options by my apartment. Instead, we started getting take-out biscuits from Northern Spy – which has biscuits to die for, but an otherwise mediocre brunch – and making scrambled eggs with chives. Since I’m no longer around the corner from Nothern Spy, I thought why not make my own?

It turns out biscuits are really easy to make. I’m sure it will take a lot of practice to make them as good as Northern Spy’s, but mine were passable. I used Alton Brown’s Southern Biscuit recipe, but upped the butter and shortening by a couple of tablespoons. I might even add some more the next time (Shhh).


I’m kind of a stickler about scrambled eggs. Too many restaurants overcook them or add too many unnecessary ingredients. I used six eggs, a drop of milk, and about a tablespoon of butter for this batch. I heat the butter on medium-low and added the eggs while stirring with a spatula. I think the key is to keep stirring them and to not let the heat creep up too much. Browned scrambled eggs are the worst! I turn off the heat just shy of them done and stir in some chopped chives. They finish cooking after you take them off the heat, at which point I add some more chives on top.


The only thing that was missing was some Bloody Marys. Next time!