On the heat. Hot

Ingredients

• 600 g Durban keema, or spiced lamb mince
• 2 onions · 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp Trinidad curry powder · 1 tsp geera
• 1 tbsp green seasoning · chadon beni
• — BARA — THE FRIED BREAD
• 500 g flour · 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp turmeric · 1 tsp sugar · 1 tsp salt
• 300 ml warm water · oil to fry
• — ON TOP
• Tamarind chutney · cucumber chutney · pepper sauce

Method

1. Bara dough: mix everything, knead 8 minutes, and leave to rise 90 minutes.
2. Meanwhile fry the onion and garlic, add the curry powder and geera, then the keema. Brown it hard, add a splash of water, and simmer 20 minutes until thick and dry.
3. Green seasoning and chadon beni in at the end.
4. Divide the dough into 32 small balls, rest 15 minutes, then flatten each to 10 cm with oiled hands — never a rolling pin, or they will not puff.
5. Fry in hot oil, 15 seconds a side. They should puff and stay soft, not crisp. Drain flat, not stacked.
6. Build: one bara, a heap of keema, chutneys, pepper sauce, second bara on top. Eaten immediately, standing, with both hands and no dignity.

Cook's note. The Natal–Trinidad line. Bara is the same idea as a Durban roti, the keema is the same mince, and both arrived on the same indenture ships. Two islands of the same kitchen.

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