John Feeney: Egyptian Soups

By JULIETTE ROSSANT With a mere seventeen recipes for soup, John Feeney evokes a novel-worth of character, mystery and mood. Egyptian Soups: Hot and Cold (The American University in Cairo Press 2006) is an odd little book, a precious little summer-time gift from Egypt. New Zealander, John Feeney died last year at the age of 84, having spent 40 years in Egypt. He fell in love with the country when he was sent to make a documentary film in 1963 and stayed to make several others including Fountains of the Sun, a record of the last flood of the Nile River when the Aswan Dam was filled. Lucky for us, he also developed an expertise in Egyptian cookery and published several books on Egyptian cuisine as well as Egyptian photos. The photographs in Egyptian Soups are vivid and strong, pomegranates, guavas, ginger, and onions. But it is the text that is so remarkable, so personal, and so quirky. Here is a quote from the introduction: These seventeen original soup recipes were conceived in Cairo and used by myself and my faithful cook Shehata for over 30 years. Diligent in the extreme, and a wonderful cook, Shehata – known as Mohamed – came from a Nubian village close to Ramesses II's 500 year old temples at Abu Simbel. He admonishes against lukewarm or tepid soup, and abhors soup plates as an "abomination". The first group of recipes is for hot soup, starting with Mohamed's Mystic Arabian Broth labeled as an aphrodisiac. I wouldn't dream of trying it, if I were you, but dare I tell you that in Malaysia they make a wild concoction of mastic, opium, honey, and aromatic herbs. Sometimes when we had guests in Heliopolis, as a special treat Mohamed would use mastic to perfume the coffee cups. John writes about mastic and where it comes from and provides an essay on Habbahan (cardamom) as well, used in the unusual soup. The cold soup chapter starts with a recipe for Iced Apricot Soup: Here, at last, is the recipe for Feeney's Iced Apricot Soup, for years sought after by visitors from Dharan, Paris and London. It must be the only soup in the world requiring the use of a small amount hammer and a touch of arsenic. Like many of the good things to eat, it is very simple to make and exudes the full flavor of apricots – "ambrosial" in our terms. His photo shows a pile of luscious ripe apricots, with spots and imperfections, while the next page shows the finished soup in a double bowl; an elegant silver tureen holding the soup inside, and a second bowl holding the ice. Egyptian Soups includes a recipe for Iced Melon Soup, perfect for a very ripe melon from a farmer's market or your own backyard. The photo shows melon sellers in Samarkand, Uzbkistan, where prize Persian melons are rumored to be the best in the world. This can be a most ravishing iced soup. But its ambrosial quali†y depends in a large measure upon using a sun-ripened melon. Salmon-colored and white-fleshed melons like those from Ismailya in Egypt are good, but best of all are the pale green-flecked galia melons from Sinai. In these recipes the line between flesh and food disappears. Reading and using Egyptian Soups is like uncovering precious stories, and pondering over what John's life was like and everything he left out. It's the other half of a Lawrence Durrell novel. Here is a food writer who ate well and no doubt lived well. But, where are his diaries and letters? The University of Cairo Press has also published two more books recently that, though less wistful, are more complete manuals of Egyptian Cuisine. Magda Mehdawy's My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen (2006) is full of traditional recipes for stuffed vegetables, quail and pigeon and Ful. It is a good book to use in the Middle East since the measurements are in kilograms and there is plenty of call for ghee. Samia Abdennour's Egyptian Cooking and Other Middle Eastern Recipes (2005) not only covers classic Egyptian dishes, but put them in context with the inclusion of Turkish, Palestinian and Jordanian, Cypriot and Tunisian variations. The photos by Graham Waite show ingredients along with the finished dishes. Both books contain helpful guides to ingredients. Previous articles: Sufi Cuisine: Nevin Halici Claudia Roden: Arabesque Arab Table: May Bisisu Orascom: Sawiris Family Feasts Openly [Cookbook Reviews – complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbook reviews --> back to Super Chef