One of the most popular foods in Antigua and Barbuda is Pepperpot, which is their adaptation of the same meal from Guyana. Since Pepperpot happens to be the national dish of Guyana, I decided to save it for when I virtually travel there. For Antigua and Barbuda, then, I decided to go with something more on the sweet side: Ducana:
Ducana is a relatively sweet hash-brown-like dumpling traditionally cooked by wrapping the mixture in lovely little banana leaf packages (which I guess also makes them tamale-like), and then boiling them. It's often served as a side dish along with more savory items (like Salt Fish), but is sometimes treated as a dessert too; which is the application I went for today. Made from root vegetables, sweet fruits, sugar, and some spices; it's really easy to put together. People vary the amounts of each ingredient and how fine they chop or grate them, depending on how sweet and firm they prefer their final product to be.
I studied these two videos and their linked written blog posts, before deciding to use fresh Tannia (a root vegetable I'd never heard of or eaten before) instead of All-Purpose Flour:
Ducana are delicious warm, cold, and lightly-fried as a snack (which of course I tried). Here are photos of the one I quickly pan fried in a mixture of butter and oil:
The bonus of this week's adventure is that shopping for Tannia allowed us to find a great local Caribbean grocery store, which I am now keeping on my list of go-to's.
This post is part of my project: "Around the World in Foodventures" (I decided I want to expand my culinary horizons even further by making the national dish or a popular recipe, or some signature food or traditional meal from every country in the world. Maybe it'll happen alphabetically, or by region, in random order, or something else. I figure if we can't (yet?) travel everywhere, we at least have the luxury of being able to taste it. It’ll be fun and interesting, but obviously, will take a long time to get through -- as I'll only be doing it once a week or so at most. I am chronicling the journey here.)
“If I’m an advocate of anything, it’s to move…Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food.” --Tony Bourdain
“If I’m an advocate of anything, it’s to move…Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food.” --Tony Bourdain
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