Hold de Lata Mangeshkar, gimme choka ah-ha!

Choka is described as “A dish prepared by mashing or pureeing fire-roasted vegetables, then seasoning heavily with salt, onions, garlic, pepper, cilantro and/or other aromatics. Hot oil is finally poured over the mixture http://wiwords.com/word/choka . 

Aloo (potato) choka

The addition of hot oil over vegetables is referred to as  “chunkay” in local parlance. There is no formal definition of the word “choka” or “chunkay” for that matter. Never mind that, Trinis make up words as a favourite past-time. Though there seems to be a hindi-derivative in there somewhere. In no way shape or form does the Trini choka mean what the urban dictionary has for a word of the same spelling!

Melongene or baigan choka

You must have read the post on roti, now choka is the favoured accompaniment. One version of choka does in fact refer to a vegetable e.g. tomato, melongene, pepper which is traditionally roasted over an open flame to char the outer skin which then makes it easily removable. Oven –roasting is now common. Another version is to simply boil the vegetable e.g. potato, tomato. Some expert cooks do a mixture of both roasted and boiled tomato. 

Tomato choka - note the black specs which are the charred prices of skin left behind after removal, served with sada roti

The addition of thinly sliced onion, minced garlic, hot pepper, chadon beni and salt to the pureed or mashed vegetable closely follows. It is important to heap the seasonings over the vegetable. The last step is the careful addition of smoking hot oil over the seasonings to take the raw taste out. Then the dish is mixed thoroughly and served with roti, rice, bread or bake.

The deadly pepper choka - consumed more as a condiment that an actual main dish unless you are insane