Shito (Black pepper)

Shito is basically the main thing most people eat with their fried yams, the banku, kenkey, fried rice and my uncle even eats it with his chinese food lol. So I will say for some of us it is mandatory to have at home. Some of these ingredients are hard to come by in the States but if you know of anyone coming from Ghana you can always ask for some.

• This recipe is for a small quantity of shito. You can increase the quantity of ingredients for a bigger portion of shito.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of oil
•  1/2- 1 cups of powdered red pepper(or more depending on how spicy you want it)
• 1/2 cup of fish powder
• 1/2 cup of shrimp powder
• 3 medium sized onions
• 1/4 cup of ginger
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon of seasoning salt(I use lawry's as always)
• 2 Maggi or Onga shrimp cubes

Method:

1. Blend the onions, pepper and ginger, in a medium sized pot pour in the oil and heat it up then pour in the blended ingredients, stir for awhile and let it cook for about 5 -10mins, add in tomato paste and let it cook for a while about 15-20mins
2. Add in your dried ingredients, if the oil is disappearing from the shito you can feel free to add more to it.Add your seasoning salt and maggie or onga cubes
3.  Keep stirring and when it turns dark brown it means your shito is almost ready(yayy!) Reduce the heat on the shito and allow it to simmer for awhile(when the oil rises to the top it means your shito is DONE!!!







Onions, garlic, ginger, onga cube and jalapeno pepper






Oil, powdered red pepper and tomato paste



Powdered shrimps

The blended ingredients "frying" in the oil before adding the powdered ingredients + tomato paste

Powdered fish

Process of making the shito, as you can see there is barely oil in the picture in the left

Shito all ready and done to be given away to the family :-)

Shito served with fried rice, grilled chicken, fried plantain and salad

Served with fried yam,fried plantain,fried egg,fish and sardine