Trinidadian Style Curry Chickpeas (Curry Chana)
Here are some variations on how I make Trinidadian style curry chickpeas (or curried chana). You can also use basically these guidelines on chicken, provided you cut it up in small bits (I cut a drumstick in 2-3 pieces with a cleaver). I ended up combining one of the best shrimp curry recipes out there (this Trini version from CaribbeanPot that I’ve made many times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhyw2W85iyA&t=16s ) and the recipe from Wendy Rahamut’s ‘Curry, Callaloo & Calypso, The real taste of Trinidad & Tobago‘.
The truth is I don’t really make this in the same way every time, so it’s not really a recipe, just general steps I found work so I don’t mess up. Getting a very good curry often has to do with: a) not ruining it b) adjusting the flavor to your taste c) using spices you like. Sometimes this depends: I’ve made overly salty and/or spicy curry which was then balanced by a relatively bland paratha. Or kind of bland curry that was saved by nice amounts of hot sauce and kuchela (a type of spicty chutney)
The basic steps would be: cooking onions, then ginger, garlic and curry, simmering chickpeas in the sauce. But there are many ways to do this, and to spice things up along the way.
The basic ingredients I use are always:
1 can of chickpeas (or dried chickpea equivalent, can find ways to modify the recipe accordingly)
1 can coconut milk, whole fat (this isn’t necessarily traditional, but it’s becoming increasingly common and I really like it). Chaokoh is pretty nice, and Jamaican Choice is good as well.
1 onion or more
Fresh ginger (I usually use a piece that’s around the size of my thumbnail), crushed/minced. you can use more
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed. The type which has the cloves with pink skin seems to work best.
~3 tbs of curry powder (I usually use Chief that’s made in Trinidad, the mild version – not the one for goat or duck which has more geera/toasted cumin, but a nice Madras curry will work just as well. You can also make your own: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJlq3bB2kU ). In the US you can usually find Chief in Stop & Shop and other grocery stores.
Salt, to taste.
1-3 tbs of Green Seasoning: okay, this is actually almost mandatory. If you don’t have all the ingredients around, at least use green onions and cilantro (and/or or culantro if you can get it), it will help your curry a lot by making the flavors much more fun and fresh in a way. A good recipe for green seasoning is here, but you can also just chop some of these ingredients and add them to the curry: https://caribbeanpot.com/how-to-make-the-green-seasoning-paste-thats-so-unique-to-caribbean-cuisine/ . You can also top the curry at the end with some cilantro leaves if you’re feeling fancy.
Some hot pepper, or hot sauce, preferably Matouk’s, or some West Indian/Caribbean hot sauce from Trinidad/Barbados/Jamaica/Grenada/Guyana. You can find this type of sauce in quite a few grocery stores now, or online, and since it will be cooked it won’t matter a lot which one. The point is it should be neutral relative to this curry (so Sriracha wouldn’t make sense, as the flavor profile is totally different). A scotch bonnet or a habanero can work. I also like to make my own hot sauce, that has a mix of scotch bonnets or habaneros, vinegar, garlic, ginger, turmeric and maybe mustard.
1-2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped offer some bulk to the curry, especially as the starch thickens the sauce a bit. Potatoes also add some subtle sweetness and umami to the curry.
Brown sugar, to taste – if you ended up with a slightly bitter curry from burning the spices or something like this, some brown sugar can rescue it.
For topping at the end: if you have Matouk’s hot sauce or mango kuchela (again, in many grocery stores, or you can easily make your own green apple kuchela (https://caribbeanpot.com/apple-kuchela-recipe/) will make the curry stand out even more.
1tbs garam masala at the end
So basic steps:
1) Press the chickpeas in some way slightly, with your fist or a spoon. Just press enough on them that the skins separate or a bit more. It will spare you a lot of cooking time and make the the curry flavor go into the chickpeas faster
In a medium-sized saucepan we do the rest of the cooking
2) Cook the onions: one way is to cook the onions low and slow, then add the garlic then the rest of the ingredients (making sure the garlic doesn’t burn). Another (from America’s Test Kitchen) is to brown the onions in some oil (and chopped potato, if using) at medium heat for ~10 min with some salt
3) Add finely chopped ginger, garlic and curry powder mixed with half a cup of water when the onion is translucent and brown-ish and very quickly after add the coconut milk. This makes sure your curry is cooked enough to not taste raw, but you also prevent the curry powder, as well as the garlic, from getting burned and bitter.
4) Add coconut milk and chickpeas and cook through.
Cook covered for ~30-45 min at medium-low heat, or until the chickpeas taste cooked through and don’t taste like raw chickpea. Then you can adjust the flavors to your taste and cook some more uncovered to thicken the sauce. I like to add ~2 tbs of green seasoning around 5 min before I’m done cooking so it adds some more complexity, and a small amount of garam masala. Some more hot sauce, salt, or even a bit of sugar can be added at this point to balance the flavors. I like to taste the curry a lot and make minor adjustments until it tastes to my liking at this point and stop cooking when I’m happy. This is really up to your taste, and optional. At the very end, add a tablespoon or two of green seasoning. Even if your curry up to now is quite bland, the green seasoning will make it very complex.
I like to eat this with mango kuchela and/or Matouk’s hot sauce/hot sauce I made, as it leads to a more ‘party in your mouth‘ flavor experience, as Trinidadian food is often described as.
For starch this can be combined with many things. One is with buss up shot roti, which is the Trini take on roti paratha. It’s not very difficult to make, but you may need to experiment with the heat for the tava (or griddle) you are using to get it right. I basically use a modified version of this recipe: https://caribbeanpot.com/buss-up-shut-roti-made-easy/ I also prefer using ghee or some other oil when making it, and brushing them with ghee on it once it’s cooked as well. A Malaysian-style roti paratha can work as well. Another is inside a fry bake: https://www.simplycaribbean.net/the-best-trinidad-style-fry-bake/?v=920f83e594a1
A new easy roti paratha recipe that’s pretty popular is this one: https://www.facebook.com/298194347309398/posts/833166850478809/?vh=e
The other (which I’ve only tried once myself, as it involves deep frying) is on top of a bara (a fried flatbread) which combined with other condiments leads to doubles, one of the most famous Trinidadian street foods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1l4ujeiRTc . I’ve also had this on a Romanian flat doughnut as in the picture at the top.