Monday, September 10, 2007

Refogado in Ghana

I've learned a great Portuguese culinary word: refogado. The book Barbara Baeta and I are writing on Ghanaian regional cuisine has a section on the ABCs of cooking in Ghana. It includes a discussion of one of the basic building blocks of most Ghanaian stews: a sauce/stew base made from oil, chopped or sliced onions, and tomatoes, as well as other ingredients like garlic or peppers. The "correct" way to prepare the base is to heat the oil, saute the onions first, then stir in the tomatoes, etc. This is what they call "refogado" in Brazil, and is, likewise, a basic technique for beginning many dishes in Brazil. As my husband is fond of saying "travel and see!"

2 comments:

Princess said...

We also start our stews, which we call afritada, the same way only, with lots of garlic. Now that I am in Southern California and being exposed to Mexican cuisine, I find that they use the same ingredients only cooked in slightly different ways. Your husband is right. I also believe that to travel is to see (chuckle)

Unknown said...

LOL this is so funny! All my life i have always known what "estrugido" is and yet i have never really been able to explain it, in a quick manner at least. So i was doing a search and found your post and another one saying how it is the same as "refogado". I however agree with the other poster, i much prefer estrugido to refugado. :) Good luck with the book.

(here is the other post i am sorry but it is in portuguese:
http://estoubarado.blogspot.com/2008/03/estrugido.html)