By Sarah Ojobo
Tom Brown is a perfect food to wean your baby with; tom brown is nutritious and filling. A lot of people often ask questions about where they can buy Tom Brown mix in Nigeria. But rather than buy tom brown, why not make it yourself at home…
NOTE:
What makes tom brown mix is a mixture of cereals (yellow corn, guinea corn and millet) and legumes (soybeans and groundnuts) as well as possibly other optional ingredients. The cereals and legumes add a variety of nutrients beneficial to baby’s good health to the meal and also for adult too.
INGREDIENTS
Depending on the quantity you want…
- Paint rubber Guinea corn
- Paint rubber Millet
- Paint rubber soybeans
- Cups of crawfish
- Paint rubber yellow corn
- Cups of debino (DATES)
- Cups of groundnuts
- Table spoon powered ginger
- Cups of dried sweet potato powder
DIRECTIONS
- Roast the yellow corn on fire until it turns brown and just before it starts popping like popcorn, leave it to cool or fry the various types of corn.
- Fry the groundnut and guinea corn aside
- Fry the millet and the soya beans aside too
- After frying the soya beans, grind softly with mortar and pestle to remove the shaft, blow the shaft away with your mouth, you can equally wash soya beans in boiling water and rinse in cool water. Dry in oven or sun
- Leave everything to cool off
- Combine all the ingredients together, if you have a high powered blender you can blend the mixture with tour blender but if not, take it to the local mill to blend. It should be blended dry.
Tom brown is ready… you can pour it inside a dry container and preserve it, it can be mix for consumption with pap, custard, tea etc some people prepare tom brown porridge. It is one thing to make the powder, it’s another to know how to prepare it so it doesn’t turn out lumpy, the key to achieving a silky smooth porridge is to stir it constantly especially at the beginning of the cooking just like semo.
NOTE
- place a small pot on fire, pour small water into it then make a thick mix of tom brown with water and pour it into the pot
- using a turning stick, turn until there’s no lump in the mixture
- continue turning it until it becomes thick like a custard and looks cooked
- The fire should be on low heat, cook for few minutes until it becomes firm, cooked and smooth.
Palm Wine
Palm wine is an alcoholic beverage created from the Sap of various species of palm tree such as the Palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is a sweet, milky, effervescent, and alcoholic beverage. Palm wine is composed of amino acids, proteins, vitamins and sugar. This traditional beverage is elaborated in different regions such as Ghana, Cameroon, and West Africa regions etc. It is produced from the fermented sap of different species of palm trees; the palm sap is collected from the unopened inflorescence of the palm by highly developed tapping techniques into the earthen pitchers or bamboo tubes that are colonized with yeasts and bacteria from the previously fermented product. The fermentation starts as soon as the sap flows into the pitcher. A number of yeast and LAB have been isolated from palm wine. Palm wine is enjoyed by as many that loved it either when sweet or sour.
Most people still fail to understand that palm wine contains rich nutrients that provide the body with lots of amazing benefits. Palm wine is more than just a refreshing drink and is rich in minerals and vitamins that help to provide the body with the necessary nutrients which prevent deficiencies and improves heart health.
Health Benefits:
- Improves eyes vision; the presence of the vitamins in palm wine such as vitamin c and Bs have a vital role which they play in improving eye vision. Many people are not aware that Vitamin c helps in building the connectives preventing related eye problems like cataracts, macular degeneration etc. vitamin B1 and B12 help in solving vascular-related issues that concern the retina which could result in chronic inflammation and more. Generally, vitamins help in keeping the eye healthy and reduce the chances of getting eye problems as much as possible and also potassium also helps in keeping the eye healthy and moist as its deficiency can cause eye dryness caused by the lack of potassium. This is the reason why people who live in the villages, especially our grandparents, tend to have better eyesight due to their intake of palm wine which seems to be their top alcoholic drink in most cases.
- Palm wine builds the body’s structure, as it contains lots of amino acid whose main function is to act as the building nutrient which the body cannot do without. It helps in building and improving the body’s organ. It also plays a major role in the repairing of the body’s tissues, structures of the bones and muscles.
- Improves Hair and Skin; it also helps in the promotion of new body cells by removing the dead cells in the body and replacing it, thereby giving the skin a soft, smooth and better appearance. Palm wine does more than is expected of it, it contains nutrients that help in nourishing the skin, the hair and even the nails (fingers and toes alike), such as the vitamins, zinc, magnesium and others which plays a very important role in the improvement.
- Treats Skin Rashes; palm wine can be used externally in the treatment of skin conditions such rashes, eczema etc especially in small children. It is done by rubbing the affected areas with un-adulterated palm wine, its content of vitamins will help soothe the skin and relieve such skin issues.
- Increases Breast Milk; this is one of the functions of palm wine in the body that most people especially those in the villages are aware of thought it is widely believed that taking of palm wine help increase breast milk in lactating mothers but scientifically, it hasn’t been proven. But still that doesn’t make the saying all wrong as most of the diseases and cure for the treatment of various health conditions are from naturally occurring plants and vegetations which our forefathers have practically been using. Palm wine has long served as the main beverage for lactating mothers in many African Countries like Nigeria, Cameroon etc. where it is mostly cultivated and can be easily gotten, and have been locally proven to help for adequate breastfeeding.
- Improves Heart Health; it helps in nerves and muscles to function well and as such helps in normalizing the rate at which the heart beats and well helps in reducing or lowering the blood pressure. Its potassium content makes it a good source of drink to help combat various related cardiovascular diseases. Potassium is good for the body and helps it function better. Palm wine should be taken in moderation to provide the heart and the entire body with the potassium it needs as either too much (hyperkalemia) or low (hypokalemia) content of potassium in the body can cause irregular health problems.
- Fights Cancer; Palm wine contains antioxidants that help prevent free radicals from damaging the cells in the body and fight cancer. An example of such antioxidants in palm wine is vitamin B2 and also food rich in antioxidant properties is known to help in reducing cancer risk, as they help prevent oxidation processes in the body which could cause some chemical reactions in the body thereby leading to damages of vital organs and cells, ulcer, inflammation.