Hudut

the Garifuna plate of green and ripe plantains pounded together in a wooden mortar, served with fish poached in a coconut and basil broth

Origin: Dangriga & the Garifuna Coast

From the journey of Banana.

Hudut is the pounded plantain, and the fish broth served with it is falmou; the two are always eaten together and the whole plate is generally called by the first word. Green plantains and ripe ones are boiled separately and then pounded in a tall wooden mortar, the hana, with a long pestle, and the proportion of green to ripe is the cook's signature: more green gives a firmer, starchier mash, more ripe gives a sweeter and softer one. The pounding is done by two people working alternate strokes into the same mortar, which is both practical, because the mash is heavy and stiff, and social, because it is done in the yard where everyone can see. A rhythm develops and it is not incidental: Garifuna drumming and the pounding of hudut are closely associated, and the sound of a mortar in a Dangriga yard on a Sunday carries a long way. The Garifuna are the descendants of shipwrecked and marooned West Africans and Kalinago people from St Vincent, deported by the British to Roatán in 1797 and dispersed along the coast from Belize to Nicaragua. Their language, drumming, and dance were inscribed by UNESCO in 2001, and their food travelled the same route: African pounded-starch technique applied to a Southeast Asian plant on a Central American coast, with fish from the Caribbean in a coconut broth. Very little else in the Americas has quite that combination of parents. The broth is coconut milk with garlic, onion, and a great deal of basil, cut with lime and thickened only by reduction. Snapper is the usual fish and it is poached whole in the pot, on the bone, since the bones are what make the falmou taste of anything.

Ingredients

Hudut

  • 3 green plantains, peeled and cut into thick rounds
  • 2 ripe plantains, peeled and cut into thick rounds
  • 1 tsp salt

Falmou

  • 2 whole snapper or 4 thick fillets, about 800g
  • 800 ml coconut milk
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 large handful basil leaves
  • 1 green pepper, sliced
  • 1 whole habanero, left unbroken
  • 1 tbsp grated ginger
  • 2 limes, juiced
  • 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Method

  1. Boil the green plantain rounds in salted water for fifteen minutes, then add the ripe ones and cook for a further eight, until both are soft enough to crush against the side of the pan.
  2. Cook the two kinds separately in the same pot as described, because ripe plantain goes to mush in the time green plantain needs.
  3. Drain them, keeping a cup of the cooking water.
  4. Pound them together while they are genuinely hot, in a deep mortar or a sturdy bowl, until smooth and elastic with no lumps left.
  5. Work fast and keep it hot. Plantain stiffens as it cools and becomes impossible to bring together, and a food processor turns it gluey rather than elastic.
  6. Add a splash of the cooking water if it tightens too much, and shape the mash into a smooth mound. Cover and keep it warm.
  7. For the falmou, put the coconut milk, onion, garlic, green pepper, ginger, salt, and pepper into a wide pan and bring to a bare simmer.
  8. Simmer gently for fifteen minutes to soften the aromatics and thicken the milk a little. Do not let it boil, or the coconut milk will split into oil and curd.
  9. Lay the fish into the broth, add the whole habanero, and poach for eight to ten minutes until the flesh comes away from the bone.
  10. Take the pan off the heat and press the basil leaves into the broth, cover, and leave for three minutes.
  11. Lift out the habanero, stir in the lime juice, and taste for salt.
  12. Serve a mound of hudut in each bowl with the fish laid beside it and the falmou ladled over, and eat by tearing off pieces of the mash and dipping them.

Notes

The ratio of green to ripe plantain is the whole character of the dish: three to two gives a firm, faintly sweet mash, and cooks adjust it freely. Pound it hot and by hand; a processor makes it gluey. Never boil coconut milk, which splits. The habanero goes in whole and comes out whole. Basil rather than coriander, and a great deal of it, added off the heat. Snapper on the bone is correct and gives the broth its body, though thick fillets work if the poaching time is cut to five minutes.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.