Lady Harriet Sackey’s special Domedo

Lady Harriet Sackey

Domedo or “Do-m3-do” as it is correctly pronounced (m3 as in te in tell and do as in the toa in toad) is grilled pork popular as night time street food in Ghana. I recall having Domedo with kenkey and shito in Accra, Ghana, mostly in my childhood. This was during a time when copious amounts of fried meat did not have us running helter skelter.  There were no health conscious folks around counting calories or kale-nazis or spinach-nazis around with designs on socially engineering meat eaters and lovers out! Times have changed somewhat. Today, i’d rather grill my domedo than have it fried in a river of oil. There are also now more spices available to jazz it up. The original domedo spice mix would have been pepper (cayenne pepper or a similar hot pepper), salt and ginger. A more sophisticated version would have included chilli powder and garlic.

Like many African recipes there are are numerous variations and styles. This domedo recipe was inspired by domedo I tasted about two years ago and made by my Auntie Harriet. It must have been divine because I still remember it. This version is perhaps as sophisticated and outlandish as the lady herself. Apart from the basic Ghana domedo recipe of pepper, ginger and salt, Lady (Auntie) Harriet adds jerk seasoning. Ah so that must have been the source of the secret twist. To some, this may be a tad revolutionary, but for me it got my heart beating faster because as the saying goes – creativity is just connecting things – in this case, fusing Caribbean and African spices. Without wishing to use any processed jerk seasoning I opted to go back to basics. I opted for adding the main ingredients or spices for the Caribbean jerk seasoning which include cinnamon, thyme, scotch bonnet and other spices. As far as pork grills go, very little come close to domedo either in its Ghana form or the Lady Harriet twist, whether in the sunny and breezy climes of Ghana or in the comfort of your own home anywhere else in the world. This really is a fantastic, succulent, juicy fusion!

Get the recipe for Lady Harriet’s special Domedo