Shitor: Enough to Share!

Don't take my word for it, we Ghanaians don't measure. We udge withour eyes and weigh in our palms.

I've been thinking of the shitor we made in Ghana all those years ago. I've been considering how the measurements would add up, as we didn't measure much except rice and cake mixes. We learnt from our mothers how to judge weights and volumes with our eyes. Try this only if you're feeling adventurous. Because of the strong cooking smell of shitor, plan to make a lot of it at once, either to share or to freeze for later use. Shitor lasts long if the ingredients used are dry, the jar is clean and dry before use, and if one uses a clean dry spoon to serve it.

Up to 1 litre of vegetable oil.

4 large onions

1 cup tomato puree

1/2 cup of powdered chilli peppers.

3 cups of dried powdered shrimp

1 cup of dried powdered anchovies

2+ teaspoons of salt to taste

Heat oil, and add chopped onion. Just as onions brown, add puree. Stir to mix and break up the thick puree in the oil. Add four Magi cubes after five minutes, then add the mixture of powders: chilli, shrimp and anchovies. Add salt to taste.


Other additions and substitutions to try:
1/2 cup Ginger powder, 1/2-1cup onion powder or dehydrated minced onion, and 1/4 cup garlic powder.

Mix and Match, Shitor: Fried Pepper Sauce

Dark brown to black in colour, this fried pepper preserve is used all over Ghana and West Africa. It could also be known as "The student's companion." For at least fifty years it has accompanied students to boarding schools for all of seven years and then some. I believe it is a Ga concoction, and oneof their most important contributions to Ghanaian culinary culture.

I'm looking for a good way to spell its most common name, while trying to get away from the first few letters: Shitor is at present my best spelling.
Usually shitor is made from dried powdered ingredients, except for onions which are sliced and fried first and tomato puree which some people add before the mix of dried ground or powdered chilli peppers, powdered dried shrimps, powdered dried anchovies (or other small sized fish popularly known in Ghana as Keta schoolboys). Don't forget salt... and some people add other flavourings such as Magi cube or Oxo.

When I was young, it amazed me how the oil frothed up high in the pan once the dry ingredients were put in. My mother's shitor was short on pepper and much more on shrimp and fish powder. Some people go so far as to fry beef cubes for their shitor-boy is it ever good! My experience was that we went fishing for the beef which we quickly depleted. And am not sure such fancy shitor lasts quite as long as common shitor.

Shitor is made to last months or about as long as the school term endures. Shitor is eaten in small amounts. Amounts between a teaspoon and a tablespoon is about as much as is needed as a dip for kenkey, banku or gari. Of course this depends on just how hot it is. Shitor can also be used to spice up a sauce or stew after it is cooked and is often stored in a jar in a fridge. Use a clean dry spoon to serve it .

Occassionally I spice up my sauces with shitor while am cooking.
The perfect shitor mix is really according to taste and I would suggest less chilli and more shrimp powder for those searching for flavours other than hot. Hot can sometimes obscure all other flavours so beware.

I don't make shitor at home because it has a strong cooking smell. But it's easy to find it at African grocery stores. I usually go for jars marked medium, as compared to hot or mild, but the heat varies from maker to maker.
Here's another recipe which I shall measure out in cups and spoonfuls when I am ready!

Leafy Green Dip or Kontomire Abom

'Ntos

Since I have been recovering from the 'flu I have had this inordinate craving for Apem and Kontomire Abom. I don't have a photo to go with this one but when am next in Ghana, I will do well to photograph this. This kind of food is the source of the wiry strength of the forest peoples of Ghana, namely the Akan: a people not very tall, not given to obesity, dark skinned and gifted with oratory, proverbs and symbolism. All this is of course my opinion which probably continues to hold sway in the rural forest regions, before urbanization and the introduction of fatty foods and meats, too much carbohydrate, too little exercise and too much stress. In short, the products of city life.

This is how my grandparents stayed healthy and lived long:
On a typical day, they would rise up early and prepare to trek to the farm. My mother has several farms and although I've been to one or two of them in my youth, my memory is very faint because I was more or less city bred. Her Akwadum farm had a stream passing through it and I remember the other children collecting little freshwater crabs.

Soon after arriving at the farm, one would either set to work, clearing land, or digging up weeds, harvesting food or collecting firewood. Invariably one would need a machete (cutlass or a short handled hoe for the work. Someone would be assigned to do the cooking.

A farm would typically have a makeshift stove of rocks and firewood and an old soot stained pot in which peeled plantain and cocoyam (from the farm) would be cooked: plantains at the bottom, cocoyams at the top, barely covered by water, with the leaves of the cocoyam plant placed on top with a few red hot peppers and covered with a lid. Kontomire cooks preferably by the steam generated within the pot.

While the food cooked the potoyewa -crushing mortar and it's wooden pestle would be made ready. After removing the boiling pot from the stove, onions, tomatoes, koobi -salted fish and fresh fish would be prepared for roasting on the open fire. Next, the roasted tomatoes, onions, and salted fish would be mashed together in the potoyewa with the kontomire leaves and hot peppers. This is Abom.


The finish: Palmoil is red saturated oil, rich in vitamin A. It is however a very saturated fat which solidifies at room temperature. Only a little is needed and one would heat this in a pan on the open fire with a small onion to fry and flavour. Pour the ngo-oil over the Abom in the potoyewa, and it's ready to be eaten with the the plantain and cocoyam. Some people mash cooked okra with the abom. My mother loves okra. The grilled fresh water fish is healthy too!
So if a stream passes through your farm, you can't get any luckier for being a farmer!