Muslims have a special method of preparing their Sallah stew. Everyone can attest to the fact that Sallah stew has a different aroma and taste.

In today’s edition, The Spectator would take readers through the pro­cess of preparing this festive stew.

Ingredients

2 pounds of meat

1/2 cup of oil

3 large onions

10 large tomatoes

2 peeled garlic clove

4 tablespoonfuls of celery leaves

3 scotch bonnet pepper, optional

2 basil leaves

1 teaspoonful of fresh thyme

1 canned tomatoes sauce, 15 ounce

1teaspoonful of curry powder

1 teaspoonful of white pepper

2 tablespoonfuls of smoked papri­ka

1 tablespoonful of maggie powder

2 green onion, sliced

Salt to taste

Method

-Cut and wash meat

-Boil meat with salt, and some chopped onions, garlic, and ginger in a medium pot until tender.

-Remove meat from the pot to dry. (Reserve the stock for later use).

– Put oil on fire and fry meat

-Grind or blend onions, pepper, tomatoes, garlic, parsley, celery, thyme, basil and scotch bonnet pepper.

– Add mixture to the oil and let it cook for sometime

– Add tomatoes puree, curry powder, white pepper, smoked paprika and bouillon powder and allow to boil, reduce heat and sim­mer for about 30 minutes.

Stir the pot frequently to prevent the sauce from sticking to the pot.

Add meat stock to give stew an additional taste.

Add green onions. Adjust season­ings, sauce consistency with water/ stock and salt.

Serve warm with a desired side dish.

By Linda Abrefi Wadie

 VELVET tamarind (dialium guineense) commonly known as ‘icheku’ in igbo, ‘awin’ in yoruba and ‘tsamiyar- kurm’ in hausa, and ‘Yooyi’ in Ghana.

-High Antiox­idant Power: The fruit is a good source of vitamin C and its consump­tion can contribute to satisfying the journal requirement that is 90 to 110 mg.

-Treats Scurvy and Infections: The fruit pulp has high ascor­bic acid content vitamin hence used as a food supplement. The high vitamin C con­tent boosts the immune system and helps the body against infections.

-Healing Wounds: The velvet fruit pulp has interesting content in calcium and magnesium. Calcium participates in ossifica­tion, to the muscular contraction, and to the blood clotting.

-Repairs blood vessel and fights Anemia: The velvet tamarind fruit pulp is rich in iron. It is indispensable for iron absorption; cloves repair and blood vessel formation via collagen synthesis. The pulp’s iron absorption is more efficient because of the presence of vitamin C.

-Prevention of Hypertension: The val­ues obtained for sodium and potassium of the velvet tamarind fruit pulp were re­spectively Preliminary studies indicate that short-term potassium depletion also elevates bloodpressure in hypertensive pa­tients. Potassium supplementation low­ers blood pressure in hypertensive patients ingesting normal amounts of sodium.

-Reliefs Menstrual Cramp and stops Diar­rhoea: The stem bark extract has significant analgesic property hence, can be used to re­duce menstrual pain. You can take it along with papaya leaf, salt, and water to work effective­ly. It can also stop diarrhea.

-Hemorrhoids (pile): Piles are swollen veins in the anal canal caused by too much pres­sure in the pelvic and rectal areas and while not life-threatening, these veins can be very painful. A study performed on ethanolic leaves extract of velvet tamarind showed it to be beneficial for pile treatment.

Source: eprojectlibrary.com