My understanding of the word “shito” is that it is the Ghanaian word for pepper. Whether you are dealing with scotch bonnet or chillies, or the fresh peppery salsa, in Ghana, we simply refer to these as “shito”. We may differentiate between different types by appending the type before the word, for instance kpakpo shito (pictured) used in the fresh shito salsa, for which I do not know the English word. Now onto the black pepper sauce. Note, we used to refer to this type of shito as simply black pepper when we were kids. I made this as an accompaniment at my Christmas feast. You will need: 400ml of vegetable oil (um, yeah, not fat-free, this is a condiment) 2 onions 3 inches of ginger (you can’t overdo it) 4 cloves of garlic (as much or little as you like, mama would skip altogether) 1 tube tomato paste (200g) 4 fresh ripe tomatoes 3 x 40g packets ground dried shrimp, fish or crayfish (availability) 2 tbsp dried chilli flakes 1 tsp each smoked paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander (all optional) salt to taste 1. Finely chop the onions, ginger and garlic. Me, I just blitz them in my chopper! Fry these in the oil. […]
