The Arab-Israeli Cookbook -recipes

Robin Soans wrote The Arab Israeli Cookbook long before the current hostilities between Israel and Palestine.

It is through cooking that different people come together, sharing a table and dishes that are prepared for it. In the West, we have grown accustomed to those from the Middle East, through Lebanese and Turkish restaurants where we enjoy food most likely prepared by exiles or adventurers, as well as through the delicatessan counter in our local shops. Dishes we know well from the Middle East include falafel, hummus, and stuffed vine leaves, old favourites.

Robin Soans is a playwright who has written about his life and the cooking found in both Israel and Palestine from both sides. He was in the midst of writing a play in Israel, and decided to take photographs to illustrate his play from the vantage point of a perimeter wall overlooking Jerusalem, near the Mount of Olives. While standing with his camera, focussing on a picture, he was approached by two men with machine guns. They did not accept his reply, that he needed the photographs to go with the play he was writing on the Arab-Israeli situation. Clearly thinking he might be a spy, he had to reason with the soldiers, and ended up handing over the film from his camera, but managing to hold onto his camera equipment, with some relief.

In The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, stories accompany the recipes. We learn how to make hummus from Mahdi, a professional hummus maker who rises at 5am each morning to make it, after saying a prayer. He follows the Koran, and breaks the rules by using toothpaste on his teeth as well as water. Light meals include Fattoush, a salad with crisped pieces of bread, ciabatta or pitta. The former is used although the mind boggles about how ciabatta could be the bread of choice in the Middle East. Robin Soans admits his life is liberal North London rather than deprived Palestinian villager.

He also writes of the delightful sounding Schug, a simple condiment made with crushed chilli peppers, seasoned with coriander, paprika, salt and pepper. Yemenis was the maker of the Schug, and his method was to crush the ingredients between two stones.

Some of the recipes come from the D’Heished refugee camp, and are by Fatthiyah, who is there, alone. She had four boys, but her 15-year old was forcibly exiled, her third son was killed, and her two older ones are married but she has no idea where they live now. She also has not been given any news of her 15-year old, and does not know if he is alive or dead. He would be 21 now. Her recipe is for stuffed fish.

And on the Israeli side amongst many other recipes, we have Erev Shabbat, cooked by Nina and Ya-akov at their house, potato salad, gefilte fish, beetroot salad, tahini and much more.

This may be a book published in 2004, but it is truly a book for our times.

Catheryn Kilgarriff, Cookery Publisher at Prospect Books

reprint and relaunch this backlist title due to current political situation