Recipes

I have finally decided to try to organise my Recipes – after all I have amassed 2 dozen on this site! 24 – can you imagine? I have organised the recipes in terms of the type of dish – Snacks and Street Food, Condiments and Spreads, Main Courses and Side Dishes, and Desserts – and tried to label them by origin (although some of the origins might be as mixed as our peoples…).

I should add a disclaimer, however, as I am not a recipe writer, being new to this. So if there’s anything I can explain better, please let me know!

Enjoy.

TYPE OF DISH

ORIGINS

Snacks and

Street Food

Accra - fried spoonfuls of a thick batter made with saltfish, onions, peppers and other good stuff.

Indian but similar to saltfish fritters and fish cakes on other islands, so…mixed heritage!

Aloo Pie – well-seasoned potato stuffed into dough and fried – Trini street food served with chutneys or channa

Indian

Baigani – Sliced eggplant, dipped in a seasoned thick yellow split pea batter and deep fried. Serve with some spicy mango or tamarind chutney.

Indian

Black-eye Peas Googni – boiled peas, sautéed with onions, garlic, cumin (geera) etc Use your favourite legume, whether channa (chick peas) or pigeon peas etc.

Indian

Cheese Rolls – fluffy biscuit dough with cheese, pimento peppers, onions, mustard rolled into spirals

Mine

Doubles – thin fried rounds wrapped around soft curried channa, eaten with pepper sauce and hot chutneys, usually sold on the street wrapped in paper

Indian roots, Trini creation

Falafel – crunchy fried channa and lentil fritter, that well-known Middle Eastern treat

Middle Eastern

Kachourie, Trini-style – ground split peas, seasoned and deep fried to crispy goodness, served with spicy chutney

Indian

Late Night Cheese Sticks – Crunchy cheesy snacks, cheese straws

Mine

Condiments

and Spreads

Cheese Paste – spread for sandwiches, filling for puffs

Trini

Caribbean

Cucumber Chutney – grated cucumber, seasoned and spiced. Eat with any of the fried goodies here, especially doubles and aloo pie

Trini

Caribbean

Za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice mix with sesame seeds, oregano, thyme and sumac – use it with bread or add for great flavour to any dish.

Middle Eastern

Main Courses

and

Side Dishes

Dhal, trini-style – spicy boiled and chunkayed yellow split peas, served in liquid form to accompany rice, roti or as a soup

Indian

Fry Aloo – Trini dish, usually eaten with sada roti – thinly sliced aloo (potato) sautéed with onions and garlic until the edges are brown and crispy

Indian

Kibbe – my Mother’s version of a Syrian meat and bulgur wheat dish, that can be baked or fried

Middle Eastern

Paratha (Buss up Shut) Trini-style – roti, flaky light and layered flat bread cooked on a tawah and then bussed-up, or pulled apart

Indian roots, Trini execution

Stuffed Eggplant – eggplant halves, stuffed with a creamy mixture of beef, eggplant, Chèvre, topped with shredded Cheddar and baked

Mine, many

inspirations

Voila! Trini Chicken Pelau, the 2nd attempt!!

Trini Chicken Pelau – one-pot meal made of rice, peas and meat

Creole,

so Trini

Desserts

Barfi Trini-style – milk based sweet, made into squares and covered in colorful candy sprinkles.

Indian

Basboosa – a Middle Eastern cake made from semolina with a sweet lemony syrup

Middle Eastern

Halal Trini Black Cake – i.e. traditional fruit cake but no alcohol, but still dark, moist and rich!

Trini
Caribbean

Coconut Sweetbread – soft, spiced sweetbread with grated coconut and sugar crust.

Trini

Caribbean

Halwah – a traditional Indo-Trini sweet, made from parched (browned) flour with butter, milk sugar and spices – this version uses rice flour

Indian

Kurma – Indo-Trini fried dough with a sugary coating (the fat kind)

Indian

Maleeda – an Indo-Trini sweet made with the paratha and coconut; served in balls

Indian

Sawine – a traditional Muslim sweet dish, made for Eid – browned vermicelli noodles in a sweet, spiced milk

Indian

Trini Gulab Jamoon – fried balls of a rich dough coated in a sugar glaze

Indian

24 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Chenette:
I have decided to brave it…and make my own Corn Soup this weekend armed with my Recipe from My Naparima Girls Cook book.

**Shudders**I HATE making dumpings. I hate putting my hand in flour.It’s sticky …and creepy…and i think I’m traumatized caue my mom used to chase me around the kitchen as a kid with her hand covered in flour….

Sigh…anyways…. I’ve tried almost 4 times to do it and they come out these ugly rough mis-shappen, half raw things.
But how the hell can i be a Tobago Girl ..AND NOT MAKE DUMPLINGS!!

Wish me LUCK!!
and I love your Blog

1. CliviaAlana on August 23rd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Hi Clivia!! Thanks
Best of luck with the corn soup. I love flour and dough and DUMPLINGS so I can’t completely emphathise…but seriously, the dumplings can be mixed with a fork (just don’t tell anyone you took this bouge way out – call it the home-ec hygienic method) and use two spoons to form them and drop them in – minimum stickiness.
Bon Appetit!!

2. chennette on August 23rd, 2007 at 12:25 pm
just readin bout these dishes makein me want 2 get up n go make it
but thin is 1/2 d stuff i dont have so makin these i will definitely do
tx 2 ur site pls post kurma n parsad

3. love_d_trini on August 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
hey, thanks for visiting and the comment
i have to get around to posting a kurma recipe, but I am not sure if I know how to do the parsad. Will have to investigate.

4. Chennette on August 29th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Hi,

I need help. I am looking for a very old indian recipe called “boulders” or “karhi”, and it is made with split peas.

I know the first step is to mix the raw split peas powder mixture with garlic, saffron, pepper, chives, salt, and very little flour to hold it together. Then, roll the dough into small balls ,and then fry them. This mixture is more dense than phoulrie.

Then a sauce is made that looks like dahl, but looks more yellow like curry, and the drained fried split peas balls are placed into the sauce, to soak up the sauce, like meat balls in tomato sauce – (that concept). It is eaten with rice or roti.

Can you or anybody please give me a step by step recipe for this dish?

It is a very old indian dish, so if you ask your older family members they would know.

Thanks.

5. michelle on November 18th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Hi Michelle – Karhi is still made pretty regularly for Hindu prayers, at least as far as I know. It’s a usual protein acoompaniment to the vegetarian meals on such events. I’ve eaten much of it on fig leaves in my time.
Your process for the making the fried balls sounds about right – although if you don’t put enough flour it will come out like kachourie.
I always assumed it was indeed put into dhal – it’s served and eaten like dhal. This is another of those that I need to consult to see if I can find a step-by-step.

6. Chennette on November 18th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Alas my kids are complaining that I dont make them snacks anymore. There was a bazaar at work and my youngest son saw me frying pholourie, mind you it was pre mixed by a caterer all I have to do was fry them. He was like but Mummy i thought you did not know how to make it.Its been so long that I have’nt made pholourie that I forgot how its done. Do you have a recipe.
thanks .

7. Sally on November 20th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Please help a desperate woman!
I’m just back from hols and really need to find an authentic Trini recipe for roti & curry chicken, I’m craving them like crazy. Although I’m not from Trini myself I know that they do the best roti I’ve ever tasted, so I’m after a really homegrown authentic recipe, so that I can cook it for myself on demand!

Thanks for any help you can give me!

8. sam on January 23rd, 2009 at 3:04 pm
hi Sam – I believe you probably want dhalpuri and curry chicken recipes right? I don’t have a dhalpuri recipe here yet, but check out this blogger friend who has quite a collection of homegrown authentic Trini food – Dhalpuri Roti – Curry Chicken

9. Chennette on January 24th, 2009 at 1:48 am
I bought some ground Dahl 100% Pure Yellow Split Peas Flour in the Caribbean market. I would like to make soup with it. Can you send me some recipes? I would really appreciate it. I am a Jamaican vegetarian and I love Indian foods.

Please respond if you can. I would really appreciate it. Thanks

10. Hyacinth on February 4th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Please send Indian recipes. I love Chana Masala but I don’t know how to cook it. It is my favorite. Please send recipes.

Thanks

11. Hyacinth on February 4th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Hi Hyacinth. Thanks for visiting. I’ll post a recipe for a Channa Masala soon (don’t know if it’s the one you want, there are going to be so many variations).
As for the yellow split peas flour – this is not usually used for soup, you’d need the actual yellow split peas – the split pea flour is in recipes like the Baigani above to form batters, or in doughs or to coat things.
If you want split pea soup, you can start with the Dhal recipe above, or try the Corn Soup on Simply Trini Cooking.

12. Chennette on February 11th, 2009 at 12:07 am
I bought some ground Dahl 100% Pure Yellow Split Peas Flour in the Caribbean market. I am open to trying new recipes. The owner told me that it is used to make poulouri and soup. Can you send me some recipes? I would really appreciate it.

I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

13. Melody M on March 28th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Hi there!!! I just came across your website looking for a recipe for my sister-in-law and must say I absolutely love your site. I’ve bookmarked so many of your recipes already it’s crazy!

I can make parsad (mohanbhog), but my sister-in-law keeps asking me to make her some sirni (Muslim version of); I can’t find a recipe for it anywhere… do you happen to know of one? My parsad recipe has no eggs, but apparently sirni has eggs and cream soda in it? Ever heard of one consisting of those ingrediants?

Any help would be much appreciated. Keep up the awesome work with your blog!!

15. Sean Ramrattan on October 17th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Hi Sean. Thanks for the comments!
Actually, that sirni with eggs and cream soda (or a red soft drink for the colour) is a Guyanese specialty that I have no idea how to make and have yet to see anyone make to get the recipe. Like your parsad, my halwa recipe (which is what Trini muslims make) has no eggs. Sorry about that.

16. Chennette on October 17th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Nice list of recipes… but doubles is trini first and then anything else…..bara and chaana was sold and one day a school boy told the vendor to double up the bara and then is how it became a doubles… check Ali’s doubles from Princess Town for the actual story…
Sawine is also Pakistani as well…
The paratha roti which we make here is indigenous to Trinidad and trini alone … in India there is a stuffed paratha… howevver the Egyptians make something similar to our paratha and it is as big as the ones we make for weddings etc….

17. trinimom on October 17th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Just to add to my comment….In India, there is a paratha similar to ours in Malabar called Malabari Paratha but not made as huge as we do…

In Egypt the layers of dough is separated by butter(Samneh) and it is called fiteer/feteer or feteer meshaltet….

18. trinimom on October 17th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
hi loved the sweetbread pal i actually enjoyed it that seems like magic in my mouth

19. lashanablair on October 28th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
hey lasha – thanks so much

20. Chennette on October 28th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
HI!

Thanks for your website I look all over for cheese stick receipe and you have it feel free to put up more receipes I will certainly try them!

22. carlene on August 13th, 2010 at 2:49 am
U all have some lovely recipes that i was longing for a long while keep up the good work

23. Sherina Mohammed on January 6th, 2011 at 10:25 am
As salaamu Alaikum

Old time school friend here. I just saw that post about sirni, and first thing that came to mind when she said muslim stuff was that in these multiple muslim functions they have in Trinidad, many people refer to the sweets served as sirni. It seems to have been brought here by our indian forefathers, but I am more than certain she is referring to the different types of halwa etc which is usually served

24. Nelepha on August 15th, 2011 at 7:27 am
assalamu ‘alaikum Nelepha yes, in Guyana they use sirnee to refer to halwa specifically whereas we tend to use it for sweets shared at functions

25. Chennette on August 16th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
I AM A TRINIDADIAN LIVING IN CHINA SINCE 1990,THANKS FOR YOUR RECIPES.DO YOU HAVE A RECIPE TO MAKE BOIL AND FRIED EGGS..

26. FATMAN on October 2nd, 2011 at 5:54 pm