Barbadian chef Taymer Mason provided this recipe for Find Yello Barbados.

Trinidadian Doubles with Bajan Pepper Sauce

Serves 6 to 8

Where can you find a vegan street food so widely available that if you miss one stall another is close by? Trinidad and Tobago!

Doubles are made of two flat and fluffy fritters, called bara, that are stuffed with a hot chickpea stew and occasionally topped with chutney.

This Trinidadian street food has made its way to Barbados and several other islands on a smaller scale. Doubles vendors don’t use split pea flour in their bara, but I do, as it adds more nutritional value and gives the fritter a hearty bite.

Bara

*1½ cups (360 ml) warm water (110°F to 115°F/43°C to 46°C)

*1½ teaspoons brown sugar

*1¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

*3 cups (375 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

*½ cup (60 g) yellow split pea flour or an additional ½ cup (60 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

*1½ teaspoons baking powder

*1 teaspoon Madras curry powder

*1 teaspoon ground cumin

*¾ teaspoon pink or sea salt

*Canola oil, for frying

Filling

*3 tablespoons canola oil

*1 onion, finely chopped or sliced into thin crescents

*6 garlic cloves, pressed

*Two 15.5-ounce (439 g) cans chickpeas, drained or 3½ cups (765 g) cooked chickpeas

*1½ teaspoons pink or sea salt

*1 teaspoon black pepper

*1 teaspoon Bajan Pepper Sauce (see recipe below)

*1 tablespoon Madras curry powder

*1 tablespoon ground cumin

*1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro

*Half a teaspoon ground turmeric

*2 cups (480 ml) water

*1½ teaspoons chickpea flour

To make the bara, stir the yeast and sugar into the water and let stand for about 15 minutes, until the top is foamy. (If the yeast doesn’t foam, it’s dead or the water was too hot or too cool. You need to start over with fresh yeast.)

Put the all-purpose flour, split pea flour, baking powder, curry powder, cumin, and salt in a bowl. Add the yeast mixture and stir until the dough comes together. It should be very soft; don’t be tempted to add any additional flour. Put the dough in a bowl lightly greased with canola oil. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 2 hours, until doubled in size

Meanwhile, make the filling. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Stir in the chickpeas, salt, black pepper, optional pepper sauce, curry powder, cumin, cilantro, turmeric, and water. Turn the heat down to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.

Add the chickpea flour and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes, until the sauce thickens slightly.

Divide the dough into 24 pieces and form them into small balls; they will be very sticky so as you make them put them on a clean, greased flat surface.

Heat 1 ½ inches (4 cm) of oil over medium-high heat and rest the oil after 5 minutes by dropping a piece of the dough into the oil. The oil is ready when the dough sizzles vigorously and browns quickly.

With oiled hands, stretch a dough ball. Some holes may form in the dough as you stretch, and that is okay. Gently lower the bara into the hot oil, and, the help ensure you don’t burn yourself, make sure that your two index fingers are the last fingers that leave the bara. Fry each bara using the 5-10-5 rule: five seconds on one side, 10 seconds on the other side, and five seconds more on the first side. Remove with tongs and drain on paper towels. Oil your hands again and continue until all the bara are fried.

To assemble the doubles, cut twelve seven-inch (18 cm) squares of waxed paper. Place two bara on a piece of waxed paper, overlapping. Top with two to three heaping tablespoons of filling. Bring the two sides of the paper together and wrap the double tightly, securing the wrapping by twisting the ends. To eat the doubles, peel back the paper.

I put my bara in a closed container when they are finished cooking. This makes them softer and more pliable.

Bajan Pepper Sauce

Makes 1 cup (240 ml)

This style of pepper sauce is what I grew up eating in Barbados, and this recipe is my personal go-to pepper sauce. The original recipe uses fresh turmeric, but that can be hard to come by. If you can’t find it, you can substitute ground turmeric.

*Half a cup (120 ml) finely grated fresh turmeric, or 1 tablespoon ground turmeric

*1/3 cup (80 ml) American-style prepared mustard

*3 Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers (seeded if you prefer less spicy)

*1 onion, coarsely chopped

*2 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

*2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

*1½ teaspoons pink or sea salt

*1 teaspoon brown sugar

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.

Transfer to a clean jar, seal, and refrigerate. This pepper sauce will keep for as long as one year in the fridge.

Recipe from Caribbean Vegan: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free, Authentic Island Cuisine for Every Occasion, Expanded Second Edition © Taymer Mason, 2016.

Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Experiment. Available wherever books are sold.  theexperimentpublishing.com