DOUBLES 101

not to be confused with our doubles quest soon to come, we had to clear the air about how difficult it is to eat a doubles in public before the TASTE T&T INTERNATIONAL CULINARY FESTIVAL coming up next weekend. we don't want people heading down there and missing out on the doubles because they don't know how to handle de scene. so we did this video to help out. take it in:

now yuh good to come down an eat one.

BRING IT TO THE RIVER

cooking by the river is as fun to do as it is fun to eat. maybe it's the resourcefulness and creativity that comes into play. probably it's the novelty of cooking outside. whatever it is, i was reminded of the simple joys a river lime can serve a crew.



fire was the first order of business. malcolm handled the burner.



jason handled the small pit.



christian washed out the pot with some river stones... nature's brillo pad.



meanwhile, ingredients start to jump off. garlic, onion, pimento and of course the tomatoes for the choka.



simple madras curry and some fresh water from home. we doh play dat with the river blend.




next step... SHHHHHAW!!



the duck was first up. seasoned from two or three days before (which was when we decided to make the river run in the first place).




usual procedure... dash in duck, mix up, season up with salt and such, coconut milk and a hot pepper. children were on the scene, so no pepper bursting was allowed.



meanwhile, Nyla started to deal with the tomatoes on the small pit. my first experience with roasted tomatoes for choka.




they went on some galvanize until they got roasted and smokey.



pimentos, onion, garlic...



chunkay the garlic.



then everything went into the bowl to be mashed together... DONE!



the goat preparation followed the same simple process, including hot pepper.



goat bubble bubble



food was done fairly quickly. nyla handled the story.



so in the end, the plates ended up with tomato choka, curry duck, curry goat, dahlpuri in some cases, buss up shut in others and curry mango which i got from the trusty roti spot in el socoro.



soon, everybody was dealing with matters.



everyone showed approval.



some showed signs of fatigue.




but some preferred to wine on the river bank with food in hand.




eventually, the day had to come to an end.
it was a good reminder of how much fun a river lime could be.
so until next time "... leh we bubble

soca dumplin

the first lime for the carnival ended up by ma. that's dawi's late grand mother's pad. just a few friends, some food, some drinks and the soca monarch runnin' in the background for ambiance. the menu was bess... geera chicken breast (because if you know dawi, you would know he only eats chicken breast), pigeon peas and my arch nemesis... dumplin. i love a good dumplin, but i cannot knead dough to save my life. that's why i bought a bread maker, but that's a different entry soon to come.

i had to get some flour and two bags of ice, at half eight on carnival friday night. needless to say, the chicken was done by the time i got there. hard luck dey. but i had no beef with the chicken. the dumplin was who i was out for that night.

anyway, dawi is a peas man. he love him some peas. for this particular meal, he went the curry route. done with his mix of curry, saffron, salt and water.

into the pot it went with some oil.





a rough chop went down on some onion and celery.





then they went into the curry.





he put in the peas next.





and the pepper was the last to go into the pot before he covered it and left it to simmer.




as is the case with all good pots on a lime, the pepper just had to burst.





but it turned out well none the less.





dumplin time! that started with a bowl of flour sprinkled with a little salt.






when he started to add the water, i saw the folly of my ways. he took his time and added the water a little at a time as he mixed it up.





knead knead knead...





knead some more...





then he started to work it into a ball.






next thing you know, he had a ball of dough and i was thinking to myself: "why do i need this bread maker again?"






to shape the dumplins, he put just a little oil on his hands so the dough wouldn't stick to them. another shortcoming of mine identified.







a hand full of dough does the trick.






next step: shape into rounds with finger tips.






then he press the rounds flat between his palms.






oh yeah... while all this was going on, he was bringing a pot of water to boil. but so fast was the kneading process, that we still had to wait for the water to boil.






oh well... who say drinks to pass the time?






on recommendation, i had a vodka with bitter lemon, and an olive. not bad.







by about mid drink, it was time to drop in the dumplins. notice they fell to the bottom. when they're done they would float to the top. i have no pictures of that, so you would have to take my word for it.






after taking the dumplins out of their hot bath,






he transfered them to a dish, rang the chow bell and...






HEAR NAH!!!
t'was a nice meal. inspiration to attack this dough making thing again.

leh we bubble...

curry chicken and friends

This is my godson J'vonte. He well love a curry chicken. So as I didn't get to lime with him for Christmas, I brought him up after the fact for a day of snacks, curry chicken and Wii battles.





This is a most important street if you're looking for something to eat curry chicken with. It's in El Socorro, and it's a secret. One that I'll tell more about in another entry. But this is the real stop for dahlpuri and paratha.





From the road, you walk down this driveway towards what could only be explained as a roti factory. Yeah, sounds like a scene. I know.





When you get to the yard, there are two buildings. In this one they make the paratha, and they also have cooked curry mango and channa/potato on sale.





This side is straight dahlpuri.





I was trying to capture the operation under low for you all, so I wasn't using flash. Didn't want to alarm de scene.





So the pics came out dark.





But doh worry. They saw my interest, and invited me to come back early when they were making the roti to get a proper documentation of the whole process.





So with that piece of good news in the bag, we got our roti and bounced. Now for my part.





We went up the road to bubble some curry chicken to deal with this roti. Took out the usual stocks. Doh worry. The Johnnie and Samboka was for J'von's father Evo and me. Daz muh boy since primary school. As in we literally pitch marbles together. But anyway...




First step... cut up the seasoned chicken pieces.





Then I bowled it all up to season it some more.





But first... who say flaming samboka shots?




Added some curry powder to coat it like a sorta rub.





Then I like to drop some lime juice in there. That lime juice in the bottle is a real handy thing in the kitchen when you like to lime things up like me.





While I let the curry soak into the meat, muh boy Evo (sous chef and photographer on this shoot) handled up some shadon beni, garlic and onion, then placed the two hot peppers in the shot for no reason. Colourful eh?





After a round of boxing with J'vonte, i thanked Evo for the help and scraped the fresh seasoning into the chicken.





Really rubbed it in. Ah mean, is curry. Seasoning is what it's all about.




Next, in went curry powder, massala, roasted geera, a little saffron powder and some salt in my trusty ice cream bowl. And just in case you're sayin' "Ice cream bowl? That's so cheap!". I'll have you know that saffron is said to be the world's most expensive spice by weight, so my cheap ice cream bowl is dealin' with some expensive spices.





The way I learned to make this mixture requires hot water. From what i remember, it dissolves the spices better.




Meanwhile, I engaged in a process called chonkayin'. I'm not sure I spelled that right, but I did it right though. It's not that hard.




It's basically burning garlic in oil. Really simple, but really important.




Next step... SHHEWAAAAH! Curry mixture goes into the pot.




I usually leave the burnt garlic in the mix while the curry burns. I don't know if it's a mind thing, but that helps with the flavour. Just before I put the meat in though, I take out the garlic and save it in my ice cream bowl for a little later.




Popped that chicken in and mixed it around in that curry. This is precisely the point at which neighbors begin to say things like "Mmmm... somebody cookin' a curry boy!". My advice, be very quiet and pretend that you're not at home.




Now I add a lot of coconut milk to this thing. AH LOVE IT! So i sprinkle from the pack.




Mix it in and let it cook up for a little while.




Then I put the remainder of the coconut milk powder into the ice cream bowl with the burnt garlic then added hot water. I don't use straight water to cook the meat down. So I add this in, plus one more thing that might be slightly uncommon...




Ketchup. When I heard it, I was like "What?". But the first time I tried it and realized that it gives the curry a sweetish undertone and a really nice, different flavour, was the last time I made a curry without including that little trick.



Mix that up and add peppers. I like to add a 2 peppers and play the "Well, ah hope de pepper doh burst in de pot" game.




Then I covered it down and proceeded to play multiple Wii games with J'vonte while it bubbled.




So a few tennis games and a good bit of "Uncle Quincy let me win dis one nah?" later, the pot was done. Got some good news and some bad news. The good news was that I found one of the peppers. The bad news was it burst.




Yeah so daz it dey. Now remember J'vonte likes curry chicken. Not potato, not mango, pumpkin and all dat... curry chicken. I could relate to dat. Like God father... like god son.




Truss mih... he like heself. And that was the main purpose of the day.



leh we bubble.