What is "ducana"

n. An Antiguan dish made using sweet potatoes, white flour, sugar, vanilla essence, grated coconut and sometime raisins, blended and wrapped in large grape leaf or aluminum foil and boiled, often served with salted fish in tomato sauce.

Ducana is a sweet potato dumpling from Antigua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and many other Caribbean islands.

They are made from grated sweet potatoes, grated coconut, sugar, flour, coconut milk, and/or water,raisins, ginger, grated nutmeg, salt and essence or vanilla extract. The mixture is combined in a bowl until it thickly coats the back of a spoon. The cooking method is quite simple, but what is often debated is the wrapping. The mixture can be cooked wrapped in foil where others prefer to cook it wrapped in banana leaves, or seaside grape leaves. . Either way the wrapped contents must be boiled in salted water for about 25 minutes or until the mixture in the wrapping is firm. Ducana is often served with salt cod (bacala) and what the islanders call "chop-up" which is a mixture of spinach, eggplant and okra. Ducana is also eaten cold, or thinly sliced and fried lightly.