Mama Farida, whose cooking and hospitality inspired the book (Photo: Sophia Baruch)[Missing Credit]
The book features more than 150 kosher recipes, and is split into 16 chapters – taking you from spices to desserts, by way of breads and pastries, pickles, mezze, soups and stews, salads and meat. And then there are the more mysterious-sounding chapters, such as “Chutar”, which translates as ‘guests’. Filled with a selection of recipes for biscuits and beverages, we’re told that welcoming guests was something Mama Farida loved to do, with Baruch explaining: “This was one of my mother’s best attributes... It came naturally to her to be surrounded by people and when they would stop by, there would always be something for her guests to indulge in.”
Although the book is deeply personal, and bears just Baruch’s name on the cover, when I arrive at the interview I quickly learn that the project was actually a collaboration between Baruch and Eliora Shahrabani. The daughter of a friend, and a distant cousin on Baruch’s husband’s side, Shahrabani has a background in publishing and cooking (graduating from Leiths cooking school with a culinary diploma in 2022), and took on the roles of recipe developer, editor, and eventually food stylist.
Like Baruch, Shahrabani also has Iraqi heritage – her father was born in Baghdad, but left as a baby – and the pair have a charmingly familial relationship, with Baruch telling me early on: “I see her 100 per cent like my daughter.” Their differences are perhaps most apparent when I ask if they’d like to travel to Iraq if it was safe to do so. Baruch immediately replies “definitely not... I have my memories,” while Shahrabani tells me: “If it was safe for me to go, it’s something that I would love to do. I can touch it through our recipes and through my parents’ stories, and even through the language, but I feel like I’ve grown up with a culture that I haven’t been able to see.”
Discover Sophia Baruch’s recipes on The JC
Bil’eifi: The Taste of My Iraqi Home is on sale now (Photo: Giora Hirsch)[Missing Credit]
One of the world’s oldest and most historically significant communities, Jews lived in Iraq for roughly 2,500 years. At its height, the community numbered around 150,000, with Jews accounting for roughly one-third of the Iraqi capital Baghdad’s population. Interestingly, Baruch was born in the city, and lived there till the age of 12. I say interestingly, because by the time she left – with her mother and siblings in the early 1980s – the community was but a shadow of its former self; an estimated 75 per cent of Iraq’s Jews having made their exodus to Israel in 1951-52 during Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.
Although Baruch admits that some of the recipes are “quite fiddly”, she and Shahrabani are keen to emphasise that the book has something to offer everyone – no matter their kitchen prowess, tastes or dietary needs – and I have to agree. “If you’re nervous, start where you feel the most familiar,” Shahrabani advises. “I understand that some of the ingredients lists can look intimidating, but they’re mostly just spices, and the recipes are all very adaptable.” Baruch agrees, adding: “It’s written in a very direct, easy-to-follow way. We went through every single recipe so many times, and tried very hard to get it as precise as possible.” Later, she encourages: “You make your own dish. I’m giving you a guideline for each recipe, but you make it as spicy as you want, you make it as salty as you want, it’s up to you.”
A traditional T'beet (Photo: Giora Hirsch)[Missing Credit]
With so much to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start, but I find myself gravitating towards the kubba – time-consuming stuffed dumplings made with rice, bulgar or potatoes – of which there are 12 variations, and the slow-cooked stews – often with surprisingly few ingredients, where the oven/stove does the hard work. The pair tell me that if I’m looking for a specifically Iraqi-Jewish recipe, I should make the T’beet – a slow-cooked, generously-spiced Shabbat dish of chicken and rice, which Shahrabani reassures me is “not as complicated” as it seems. Another recommendation is the mechbouz b’tamir – stuffed date biscuits – which Baruch describes as “intrinsic to the culture”.
For both women, creating this book has clearly been a labour of love, and it shows. “I’m so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have delved deeper into my heritage,” Shahrabani tells me, as the interview is coming to an end. “While I was sort of familiar with a lot of these dishes, there were so many that I’d never heard of, and I would take them to my aunt or my father, and ask: ‘Have you ever heard of this? What can you tell me about it?’ And it starts with the discussion of the dish, and then it leads into more. It leads into history. It leads into family.”
Discover Sophia Baruch’s recipes on The JC
Sophia Baruch and Eliora Shahrabani (Photo: Eva Baruch)[Missing Credit]
For Baruch, who admits she never imagined she would end up making “a proper book”, this connection to family and heritage is the magic ingredient behind the project’s success: “It has a lot of identity, your culture, your religion, your relationship with people, and also your relationship with food. Food can bring so much happiness to people, and can put people together, and I think this is why, so far, everyone is really liking it.”
Bil’eifi: The Taste of My Iraqi Home is on sale now.
Instagram: @sophia.baruch and @elioras_eats
