A Taste of a Childhood Pastry: Duckanoo a Childhood

A Jamaican dessert originated in Africa. This was a highly popular indigenous dessert in the Americas.

Being born on a tropical Island can be heaven, not only the perfect climate, but the delicious foods, and the exotic fruits too. As a child, in Jamaica, my siblings and I have aunties living in the country. My Auntie Cottie always comes to Kingston to visit her sisters. My mother and her other sister. She would bring lots of stuff for her sisters and their children. So, my siblings, I and my cousins were always happy when she visited.

Auntie Cottie, as she is lovingly called, carried ground provisions for us including baked stuff. She carried rose apples, and she would place a nice round one in my hand. Rose apples were a delicious, uncommon fruit that was seasonal and mostly grown in the countryside. Maybe it’s because it was cooler than the city where we lived. As a child, a rose apple was a gem and I felt special receiving one personally from my favorite Aunt.

On this day my Aunt brought us blue-draws.

According to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckanoo

Duckunoo or duckanoo, also referred to as tie-a-leaf, blue drawers (draws), dokonon (in French Guiana), and dukunou (in Haiti) is a dessert in Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, French Guiana and some other Lesser Antilles. It is a variation on the dish ducana which originated in Africa.

Dukunoo means “sweet thing,” when directly translated.

It’s made from cornmeal, sweet potato, shredded coconut, coconut milk, brown sugar, and several spices, including nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla. You can also add a slice of yellow yam and coco to the batter. You can add wine and mixed fruits to the batter to make it more delicious. I don’t know how my aunt made hers, but I didn’t like the extra moisture. I think too much liquid might have gotten into the banana leaf that it was cooked in. It wasn’t baked like ordinary pudding. However, this mixture could be used for pudding as well. It was wrapped in banana leaf and cooked in water on the stove.

So, for years I refused to eat it. It was a big turn-off. My husband and my son-in-law were discussing this gem. He planned on reintroducing this to me with the hope I would become reunited and love it too. As a boy growing up in the country, he enjoyed it and wanted me to love this gem that was the jewel in the crown.

They planned on making duckunoo together when they came for Christmas. This week my husband was watching this Jamaican chef in the UK, Chef Ricardo. He was making duckunoo and he was determined to make it for me. He tried to convince me I would love it and ask for more.

On Christmas Eve he started the task. He grated 4 small, sweet potatoes and coco, a slice of yellow yam. He added one cup of cornmeal, half a cup of flour, and one cup of sugar. Half cup shredded coconut. A quarter cup of red-label wine. Then he added the spices, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt. Then butter was added. I wanted to try it with the mixed fruits of raisins, and currants that had already been soaked for one year. So, I put in a quarter cup of mixed fruits and used the coconut milk to combine everything together. If it is too loose you can add flour to get it to the right consistency.

We worked together to mix and measure out by portion size. We used plastic because we did not have banana leaves. We wrap it in plastic saran wrap making sure it is wrapped tightly. Then we wrap it again in parchment paper and lastly in foil. Tie it with string and place it in the boiling water.

This same string may also be the reason this dish is called blue drawers, as drawers are Jamaican slang for underwear, and in the old days, before elastic, string was used around the waist to keep the garment in place.

The UK chef says to cook for 30 minutes. I did it for roughly 50 minutes.

This is the result of our duckunoo.

Oh wow! The duckunoo when it came out was not ‘wetty, wetty’ or too soft from my experience and memory as a child. It was so delicious. I ate three-quarters of it that night. My husband was pleased. The wine made it more delish, but the one with the mixed fruits, WOW, it was the bomb.

Ducknunoo does not have to be wet. It was not wet but very delicious. My husband says, “Your Aunt didn’t wrap it tightly enough!”

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