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Shito orshitor din (lit. 'black pepper') is a hot black peppersauce ubiquitous inGhanaian cuisine.[1] The name comes from theGa language.
Shito sauce consists primarily offish orvegetable oil,ginger,dried fish,prawns,crustaceans,garlic,peppers and spices. These ingredients are usually blended and cooked in vegetable or corn oil for a little over an hour to create the sauce.[2] The blend of spices and fish differs between different regions and villages but owes its original recipe to the Ga tribe.[3]
In Ghana, shito is used with a variety of dishes. These includekenkey,steamed rice,garri andwaakye (rice and beans) andbanku. Indeed, its uses have been adapted to that of a localketchup,hot sauce orchili oil. It is not uncommon to find shito being eaten withwhite bread orspring rolls. In most Chinese restaurants across Ghana, shito replaceslayou as a condiment to fried rice/steamed rice.[4]
Shito is not always hot black pepper and it can also be prepared without the use of oil. The ingredients for this type of shito are fresh pepper, onions, tomatoes and a little salt mashed together in an earthenware bowl popularly known as 'asanka' and a pestle shaped like an hour glass. The colour of the resulting sauce is red (shitor tsulu) or green (kpakpo shito) depending on the colour of the pepper used. It can be eaten withbanku,akple, gari,kenkey andsteamed rice.
