Antigua: Ducana

Ducana is probably the most unusual dish I have come across in the project so far. It's a sweet dumpling or pudding made from a combination of grated sweet potatoes, coconut, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Common in Antigua & Barbuda, Saint Kitts & Nevis, ducana is typically wrapped in banana leaves and boiled to make a dough. It's usually served with salt fish, which is what I paired it with. You can find my recipe for salt fish here.

Combined with the salt fish, ducana is delicious. Sweet and salty all in the same mouthful. By itself, I found ducana to be uncomfortably sweet. Neither myself or my partner could finish it after we had eaten all our fish, and we both have a sweet tooth. You can fry leftover ducana so that it is crispy on the outside and soft in the centre, and I was thinking that I might eat my leftovers with a plain yogurt or something like that. My partner thinks it tastes like Christmas pudding, and he's not wrong! I think it's the raisins.

You can grate the sweet potato with a food processor but because I wanted a very fine grating, I used a cheese grater instead. It's also supposed to be made with fresh coconut that is grated up, but I didn't have any of that either. I did have about 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut so I used that and then I topped it up with some creamed coconut I found in the supermarket. I did try to look for another bag of desiccated coconut first, but everywhere I go all of the baking aisle is completely bare - unsurprisingly seeing as everyone is in lockdown and baking gives people something to do!

I think next time I would add less sugar. The sweet potato, coconut and raisins all add a sweetness already and I think it would be easier to eat without the amount of sugar that is added. I've left the recipe below as is, but if you don't have such a sweet tooth then I would opt to add less.

Generally, ducana are wrapped in banana leaves. I wouldn't even know where to begin to buy banana leaves so I wrapped them in tinfoil instead, which worked absolutely perfectly.

They were really fun to make, and they were delicious with the salt fish, so I feel like this combo is a winner!

Mixing the ingredients together

Wrapped up and ready to go.

Boiling away.

Unwrapping the final product.

The final product, yum!

Antiguan Ducana - Sweet Potato Dumplings
Makes 4 dumplings

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely grated sweet potato
• 3/4 cup fresh grated coconut
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (or less if you don't have too much of a sweet tooth)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup raisin (optional, but I added them!)
• 1 - 1.5 cups flour
• Tinfoil for wrapping (or banana leaves and twine if available to you)

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of unsalted water to boil.
2. Combine the sweet potato and coconut in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, butter, cinnamon, vanilla and raisins. 
3. Mix in enough flour to make a sticky, cohesive dough.
4. Take a piece of tinfoil about the size of a dinner plate and put a quarter of your mixture into the middle of it, in one big blog. Wrap the tinfoil around the ducana like you would if you were wrapping a present, ensuring that it is completely covered. 
5. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
6. Reduce the boiling water to a medium-high and add the four packets of dough. Cook until desired consistency: 30 minutes will make them slightly soft while 45 minutes will firm them up.
7. Remove from the pot and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before unwrapping.
8. Serve with salt-fish