I have always felt amazed how some of the recipes around the world are very similar to Indian versions, but the origin of the food is not clearly informed in some cuisines. Some recipes may have different names but have similar method or variation of it. As I am very close to Indian cuisine I might feel it very similar to my cuisine but think about the people who follow other cuisines they would never like their cuisine to be compared with Indian as it might have little or more difference in the method or ingredients used. One such cuisine is Trinidad cuisine which is one of the cuisines from the Caribbean Island. Trinidad and Tobago are two islands which have a blend of African, Amerindian, French, Creole, Indian and Spanish cuisines. Trinidad and Tobago is the largest island in the southern part of Caribbean. This Island has its diverse culture and is sometimes referred to as “Rainbow Island” for its food has all colors added. The Blending of culture is clearly seen in all the dishes in this cuisine, and so I chose to make a dish which is very similar to Indian from this cuisine.
Paratha roti is a very traditional Trinidadian dish which is also called as ” Buss Up Shut” which means “Busted up shirt” which literally means Crispy Parathas is made and broken to pieces before serving them with some curry. Along with paratha roti ,Dhal poori, Dosti and Sada are the most famous Trinidadian bread which has some Indian influence. You can get very familiar with Trinidadian breads and curries very easily as it has a lot of similarity with Indian cuisine. Today I am sharing Dhal poori roti recipes here. Dhal poori roti is a stuffed Trinidadian bread traditionally stuffed with yellow split peas dhal which cooked and milled in the miller with garlic and chilli to powder and stuffed in the roti. Some recipe calls for chandon beni which is a kind of similar to cilantro but I haven’t added it in this recipe..I also made a Tirini curry to go with dhal poori.. This dhal poori can be wrapped with a curry and enjoyed like a burrito or you can just have it curry on side. Curry Channa aloo is a delicious trini curry which also resembles Indian curry with a different method and spices used. In Trini cuisine, Madras curry powder is used much in place of our red chilli pd and coriander pd. I made Homemade madras powder curry for this curry and it was so yummy with dhal poori.I will share the curry recipe some other day, Moving on to the recipe , I have adapted the recipe from here.
- All-purpose Flour - 3 cups
- Baking pd - 1 tbsp
- Salt to taste
- Yellow split peas - 1 cup
- Garlic - 3 cloves
- Green chillies - 3 -4 ( as needed)
- Cumin Pd / Jeera- 2 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Water as needed
- In a take the yellow split add adequate water to cook the dhal.
- Add turmeric to the split peas while it cooks.
- Cook them till when you pinch the dhal in between your fingers they should crumble like a powder.Don't overcook the split peas till they are mushy.
- Once the peas are cooked drain the water and let them cook a bit.
- Add garlic, salt, green chillies, jeera pd to the dhal.
- I used a blender to blend the dhal if you own a hand mill you can grind the dhal in it.Grind it into a fine powder and set aside.
- In a bowl take the flour, salt, baking pd and Mix it well.
- Add water little by little to make a smooth and soft dough.
- Cover and rest the dough for 15 mins.
- Divide the dough into equal sized balls and flatten the balls to disc with your fingers.
- Fill a handful of dhal stuffing into the flattened disc and seal the corners, keep pressing the stuffing in.
- Pinch and seal the dough well else it will spill out.
- Press as roll them with a rolling pin to a thin roti
- Heat a skillet or tawa place the rolled roti and cook them both sides till you see brown spots.
- Drizzle some ghee while cooking the roti. Air bubbles will inflate the roti.
- Wrap the roti with some curry or enjoy the roti as is with curry. We enjoyed our dhal poori with curry channa aloo.
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