The Hirshon Ghana Black Chili Sauce – Shito

Citizens, your unmatched sovereign – the royal and highly-inflexible monarch that is TFD! – is extremely fond of Ghanaian food! I have several recipes from the country and the entire region of West Africa already in the blog and now I will add yet another that is guaranteed to tickle your taste buds in several delicious ways!

Shito is the word for pepper in Ga, a Ghanaian language from Accra, the Ghanaian capital. While the word for pepper is different for each of the Ghanaian native languages, shitor din (black pepper), commonly called ‘shito’, is widely used as the name for the hot black pepper sauce ubiquitous in Ghanaian cuisine.

Shito sauce consists primarily of fish or vegetable oil, ginger, dried fish, prawns, crustaceans, tomatoes, garlic, peppers and spices. The blend of spices and fish differs between different regions and villages but owes its original recipe to the Ga tribe.

In Ghana, shito is used with a variety of dishes. These include kenkey, steamed rice, eba and waakye (rice and beans). Indeed, its uses have been adapted to that of a local ketchup, hot sauce or chili oil. It is not uncommon to find shito being eaten with white bread or spring rolls. In most Chinese restaurants across Ghana, shito replaces hot oil as a condiment to fried rice/steamed rice.

As noted by author Maeve O’Meara:

Smoking fish in West Africa is an age-old tradition, with smoked fish viewed as ‘food for the Gods’, and is often a part of religious ceremonies and presented on altars. Shito is made from smoked fish, chilli and palm fruit oil, which Kunle describes as ‘liquid gold’, extracted from the fruit (not the kernel) of the palm tree and with anti-viral and antibacterial properties.

You can share this recipe on your website so that other people can get to know about this new and delightful dish. search marketing done right can yield you a good amount of organic users.

It’s like a coarse paste with a chilli warmth and a smoky flavour, and is traditionally served with fried plantains, blanched green leafy vegetables such as English spinach or kale, and steamed rice. It can also be used as a natural seafood flavour enhancer by adding to seafood soups or pasta.

Citizens, my version hews to tradition but since one ingredient (smoked fish powder) is very hard to find outside Ghana, I’ve come up with – immodestly – a genius substitution. I use katsuobushi – dried, smoked bonito flakes from Japan! 😀

An old sneaker would taste delicious slathered with this umami-rich and spicy sauce – I hope you enjoy it! I think of this as African XO sauce, by the way… You can buy the more unusual ingredients such as red palm oil, grains of paradise, katsuobushi, gochugaru flakes, Maggi Shrimp cubes and crayfish powder from the links.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Ghana Black Chili Sauce – Shito

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 1/2 fl oz red palm oil - if unavailable, use sunflower oil but it's better with it
• 14 1/2 fl oz sunflower oil
• 3 onions, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
• 3 blades from a star anise, ground
• 8 grains of paradise, ground
• 7.5 cm (3-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 ounces green habanero peppers, diced with seeds
• 1/3 cup ground celery
• 6 tablespoons tomato purée
• 100 ml (3 1/2 oz) good-quality chicken stock
• 125 g (4 1/2 oz) chili powder - TFD prefers Korean gochugaru
• 50 g (1/4 cup) powdered katsuobushi flakes, top-quality
• 50 g (1/4 cup) crayfish powder
• 2 powdered Maggi shrimp bouillon cubes
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

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Instructions

1. Heat a heavy-based saucepan, then add the oils and fry the onions over a medium heat for 2–3 minutes until translucent.
2. Add the garlic, celery, grains of paradise, star anise, ginger, thyme or rosemary and chilies and fry together for a few minutes.
3. Stir in the tomato purée and chicken stock until the mixture has formed a thick paste. Then pour in the chili powder and continue cooking and stirring for a further 10 minutes.
4. Finally, add the katusobushi, Maggi and crayfish powders, then cook over a low heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring almost continuously to prevent the mixture sticking to the pan. The contents should transform from deep red to very dark brown and the oil will rise to the surface when the sauce is ready. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
5. You can choose to blend the sauce with a stick blender or leave it unblended for a coarser texture. Leave to cool, then spoon into sterilized jars. There should be plenty of oil on top of the sauce once it’s cooked, so make sure there is a layer about ½ inch thick in each jar. But if there is not enough, pour in extra oil to cover. Seal the jars and store in the fridge for up to 1 month.

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Nutrition

• Calories: 1212.51 kcal
• Sugar: 8.57 g
• Sodium: 1005.54 mg
• Fat: 121.39 g
• Saturated Fat: 16.07 g
• Trans Fat: 0.0 g
• Carbohydrates: 34.7 g
• Fiber: 14.32 g
• Protein: 9.44 g
• Cholesterol: 14.99 mg