Smashed Shito Cucumber Salad

Two summers ago, I cross-tested this recipe for Sichuan smashed cucumber salad, and I have been thinking about it ever since. This shito cucumber salad is my West African response to Elsie’s Sichuan-style one, which I enjoyed on repeat that summer. The biggest differences are that I use shito in place of Sichuan sauce and red palm oil instead of sesame oil — though sesame oil works here just as well! 

Just like in Elsie’s version, the final result is a bowl of perfection — crispy, cool cucumbers, the smoky heat of shito, and the buttery taste of palm oil, finished with lime juice and soy sauce.

Shito is a very common Ghanaian hot pepper sauce, in fact, shito actually means pepper in the Ga language. It has a very deep red color from the sauce being thoroughly cooked down until the liquid in the peppers, tomatoes, and onions has evaporated.  

When I lived in Los Angeles, my ex-boyfriend and I would frequent an African food store run by a Ghanaian family. The store was loaded with different spices and seasonings, as well common ingredients in West African cooking, and loads of familiar snacks from our childhoods. We had a friendly rivalry because I’m Nigerian and he’s Ghanaian, so being from neighboring countries we were always jokingly trying to one up each other. The day he introduced me to shito was a day he succeeded wholeheartedly. 

Upon first seeing shito, I was reminded of various chili crisps from Chinese-owned brands, like Fly by Jing, that I had seen and tasted before. When I actually tasted the shito, I was immediately struck by how much similarity there was between shito and chili crisp, but also how drastically different they tasted. Shito typically includes the use of ground dried fish and/or shrimp in the mixture, and the flavor it adds is mouthwatering. To me, shito is the definition of umami flavor.