Conkie (also conkies/dukunoo) is a steamed cornmeal-coconut pudding wrapped in banana leaf, made across the Eastern Caribbean, traditionally around harvest and Independence.
Unwrap a conkie and the banana-leaf-scented pudding is dense, moist, and golden, sweet with coconut and studded with raisins, fragrant with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bite: the cornmeal gives a soft, slightly grainy chew, the coconut and pumpkin sweet and rich, the spices warming, the raisins bursts of sweetness. A festive steamed sweet — the taste of a Vincentian harvest.
Cornmeal and grated coconut, bound with coconut milk and steamed, set into a dense, moist pudding; the pumpkin and sweet potato add moisture and natural sweetness. Steaming in banana leaf cooks it gently and perfumes it — a wrapped pudding in the West-African-Caribbean tradition.
Variations
With more raisins and spice. With grated cassava. Less sweet (savory-leaning). With rum-soaked fruit. Steamed in foil. With a richer coconut-milk batter.
On the Palate
Where Conkie sits in the Vincentian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
8 steps · 35 min active + 55 min waiting
- 16 min
Mix 250 g cornmeal with 200 g grated coconut, 150 g grated pumpkin, and 100 g grated sweet potato.
- 23 min
Add 120 g sugar, 60 g raisins, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.
- 34 min
Stir in 60 g melted butter and enough coconut milk to make a soft, thick batter.
- 48 min
Soften banana leaves over a flame and cut into squares.
Watch outWarm the banana leaves over the flame just until they turn glossy and floppy — do it cold and they split when you fold.
- 56 min
Spoon batter onto each leaf and fold into sealed parcels.
Watch outFold and tuck the parcels tight with no gaps — any opening lets water in and the pudding turns soggy.
- 64 min
Tie the parcels with string.
- 752 min
Steam upright 50 min until set and firm.
Watch outIt's done when a parcel feels firm and springs back, not squishy — the batter has set into pudding.
- 87 min
Cool slightly, unwrap, and serve.
