Soul food

I spent New Years’ eve in Marrakech. I caught a bad cold during the chilly night out there on Jamaa el Fna (Djema el-Fna). Back home, to get rid of the cough and snuffles, I decided to do some serious cooking – soul food.

I ruminated about what it could be that would help to get back my strenth… and remembered the funniest recipe I had ever found. It was invented by the great american fiction writer Thomas Coraghessan (T.C.) Boyle and published in his hilarious first novel Water Music. I quote from the fist part, The Niger:

“BAKED CAMEL (STUFFED) – serves 400

500 dates
200 plover eggs
20 two-pound carp
4 bustards, cleaned and plucked
2 sheep
1 large camel
seasonings

Dig trench. Reduce inferno to hot coals, three feet in depth. Separately hard-cook eggs. Scale carp and stuff with shelled eggs and dates. Season bustards and stuff with stuffed carp. Stuff stuffed bustards into sheep and stuffed sheep into camel. Singe camel. Then wrap in leaves of doum palm and bury in pit. Bake two days. Serve with rice.”

I love this recipe because it made me rock with laughter when I first read it. Thank you very much, T.C.!! – So, this might be the right soul food to make me well again. Lot’s of stuffing to be done, though…

When I went shopping, the problems started.

First, the camel. No camel to be found, nowhere. Neither on the weekly market nor in a butcher’s shop. So, I had to skip the camel. See, here it is, still alive:

Second, the sheep. I cannot eat sheep meat, I just can’t… Hence, I had to skip the sheep.

Third, the bustards. Hard to get as well, around here. But wait, here I got an idea for substitution. The bustards are birds, I could substitute with another bird. Hence… I  bought a chicken.

Fourth, the carp. Carp…, wait…, carp…, aren’t those the big, big fish like my brother once had in his garden pond (that particular one’s name was Karl, b.t.w.)? But those never ever would fit into the tiny little chicken I had bought… So, I had to skip the carp.

Now we come to the eggs. As I did not have a carp to stuff the 200 eggs into, and anyway did not want to be bullied by the conservationists for killing 200 future plovers, I just bought two chicken eggs then.

Finallly, the dates. Don’t like dates, either, I’m afraid… But I substituted that by mixed veggies, loads of them, to make up for the missing camel, sheep, carp and bustards.

And yes, I had seasoning in my cupboard, that was easy: cloves, parsley, thyme, laurel, pepper, juniper, you name it.

Then, when I had my ingredients finally gathered, there was the next problem, the fire pit. I doubt my landlord would have agreed that I start a roaring inferno, to get three feet deep of glowing coal on my kitchen floor. My neighbors would not have been amused, either, I guessed. Hence, I had to skip the singeing (don’t like the smell of burnt hair, b.t.w.) and baking as well and had to use a pot on my gas stove instead.

After some peeling, cleaning, washing, cutting, chopping, stewing, stirring, boiling, steaming, custard-royaling*, good-smelling, here it was, my soul food: The best chicken soup I made, ever**.

* custard royale = poached egg cubes (Eierstich)
** it was the second time I made it… 😉