Desserts ‘nourish the soul’, write Greg and Lucy Malouf in latest cookbook
- According to Suqar, many European desserts actually originated in the Middle East, from sorbet and doughnut to rice pudding
It is not difficult to guess the meaning of suqar – the Arabic word gave English its sugar. It is also the name of Greg and Lucy Malouf’s latest book. The Lebanese-Australian chef and his ex-wife aren’t really known for their sweets – they have written seven other cookbooks on the cuisines of the Middle East, but this is the first to focus solely on desserts.
In the introduction to Suqar – Desserts & Sweets from the Modern Middle East (2018), Greg writes that desserts don’t feed our hunger, but they make us happy. “A lifetime of working in restaurants has taught me that nothing makes people’s eyes light up the way desserts do. For all that we chefs like to focus our energies on the savoury components of a meal, we know, in our hearts, that a significant number of diners will skip straight to the pudding menu before choosing.
“I’ve often wondered whether this is simply habit, or if it is somehow innate, this desire to finish a meal with something sweet – even if it’s just a few small bites of pleasure. Because make no mistake about it, sweet things are purely about pleasure. They are the fun stuff, the fripperies, the indulgence. When they follow on from a savoury course, any real hunger has already been satisfied, but I do think that desserts satisfy a different kind of hunger: they nourish the soul, if not the body.
At first glance, it looks as if the Maloufs have just given a Middle Eastern twist to European desserts. It turns out, though, that many of those desserts originated in the Middle East – not Europe. “When you choose your favourite sorbet, eat a hot doughnut, a slice of fruit tart or a spoonful of rice pudding, these are all culinary concepts that can be traced back to the Persian, Arab and Ottoman empires,” Greg writes.
The recipes include roasted apricotswith cinnamon brioche and roasted almond ice cream; plum souffle with cardamom and orange; saffron-blood orange brûlée; pistachio-barberry nougat glacé; choc chip-tahini cookies; sesame biscuits with pistachios and sour cherries; clementine-cardamom cake; blood orange steamed puddings; bay-butterscotch baklava with caramel pears; date custard tart; Arabic apricot doughnuts; shredded apple fritters with rosemary sugar; stuffed dates; quince Turkish delight; rose petal jam; and spiced Arabic coffee.
