Shito (Ghanaian Chilli Sauce)
As I begin to type this recipe, I was trying to remember when was the first time I tasted Shito. Although I can't remember when exactly, I know two of my Ghanaian friends were my sure plug thanks to their mums. Basically I can't remember who gave it too me first but all I know is from the very first time I tried it, I loved it! It's also something that I have been wanting to make for years- way before I even started this blog but I was a little bit discouraged because I thought it took a lot of effort. After making it now, I can confidently say it is not as bad as I thought and I enjoyed every moment making it! You need to have seen the smile on my face when I added in the ingredient that gives it that authentic shito flavour/aroma! Thats when I knew -"mama I made it". The taste didn't disappoint as well and now I'm excited for everything I am going to try it with - Jollof rice, Fried Rice, Plantain, Yam and the list goes on!
Shito is a very popular Ghanaian chilli sauce. It is delicious sauce that can be enjoyed with many meals as mentioned above. How spicy you want this sauce is up to your taste so feel free to add more or less chilli powder than stated in the recipe below.
Recipe.
Equipment
- Pot (preferably non-stick)
-Food processor/ Spice grinder (to blend the chilli and or dried fish if you don't have the powder form already)
-Blender
-Cooking spoon
-Cooking Bowls
Ingredients
-5x medium to large Onions
-1 cup of Ginger - chopped
-10 cloves of Garlic
-6x Scotch bonnet (or add more or less according to your taste)
-1/2 cup chilli powder (or add more or less according to your taste)
-1 tbsp Rosemary
-1/2 cup vegetable oil- for blending
-1 litre vegetable oil- for cooking
-Seasoning powder (to your taste)
-1/2 cup Herring powder (if you can't get the powder, get the dried fish and blend into powder form- the fish is also called - Bonga/Shawa)
-1/2 cup Shrimp powder
-170g tomato puree (optional)
-Salt (to your taste)
Process
1) In the blender add the following and blend until smooth: oil, onions (chopped), ginger, garlic, rosemary and scotch bonnet. Pour in a bowl and set aside.
2)If using some ingredients that need to be in powder form but aren't, you can grind them them now- for example, the chilli, herring, shrimp. Grind them individually in the food processor/Spice grinder. But if you already have them in powder form then you're good to go.
3)In the pot, heat up the oil for about 1-2 minutes. Then add in the tomato puree and stir together and allow to fry on low to medium heat for about 2-3 minutes.
4) Add in the blended onions, etc from step 1. Stir together properly and allow to continue frying on medium to low heat. The thing with cooking shito is there will be a lot of stirring in order to avoid it burning/ stick to the bottom of the pot especially if you are not using a non-stick pot. So keep stirring occasionally as it fries.
5)When the oil separates- ie floats to the top, then add the chilli powder, seasoning powder, herring powder and shrimp powder. Then stir altogether. This is where you can adjust the chilli and seasoning to your taste. So taste and add more seasoning or chill as you prefer.
6) Keep stirring occasionally and let the sauce cook until it becomes very dark brown and the oil floats to the top. Let the sauce cool down and then put into containers and keep refrigerated and enjoy when and as you please!
Check out the reels section of my Instagram page for a quick video showing the process here.
Any questions, feel free to send an email or message on any of my social media platform.