By Nicholas Osei Wusu
The Asantes have a variety of finger-licking dishes some of which are fast fading away, if not already lost on the youthful generation. But a traditional dish prepared from roast cocoyam has stood the test of time and remains a meal worth coming home to. From the Ashanti region, GBCNews turns on the light on this finger-licking traditional dish called Ogoor.
For many youth of today, mashed red or unripe plantain, as well as mashed boiled yam mixed with palm oil and garnished with cooked egg, remain the only such traditional dishes of their kind on the roll call of traditional meals in the Ashanti region. Similarly, these generations could also be familiar with roast plantain, taro or yam but certainly not the crispy delicious meal prepared from mashed roast cocoyam mixed with palm oil. This age old dish was a special request dish prepared during the recently organized Food Bazaar organized by GBC’s Garden City Radio staff. The ingredients include cocoyam, palm oil, pepper, tomatoes, onions, salt and preferably a piece of salted fish locally known as m)m)ne to give the meal the preferred flavour. Charity Opoku accepted the challenge to prepare this dish and took GBCNews through the recipe.
)g)) tastes crispy because of the hard skin of the roast cocoyam which distinguishes it from all other mashed dishes. It is served best with either roasted groundnut or avocado. Some of the staff who relished in the )g)) shared with GBCNews their impressions.
It is mostly prepared and sold by women engaged in the sale of roast yam, plantain and cocoyam. It is prepared only on demand. )g)) is now becoming a preferred meal for lunch by both sedentary and manual workers as it keeps one going for an appreciable longer time.
Below is the video;
https://youtu.be/FSk_utfQook