Finding Magic in the Homeplace
An essay and recipe for maraq cad (Somali lamb broth) with yam dumplings. Words by Fozia Ismail. Photographs by Fozia Ismail and Georgia Rudd.
‘An effective means of white subjugation of black people globally has been the perpetual construction of economic and social structures that deprive many folks of the means to make homeplace. Remembering this should enable us to understand the political value of black women’s resistance in the home … We can make homeplace that space where we return for renewal and self-recovery, where we can heal our wounds and become whole.’
— bell hooks, Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics
‘It’s not possible to constantly hone on the crisis. You have to have the love, and you have to have the magic, that’s also life’ — Toni Morrison
Cooking a familiar dish with an unfamiliar ingredient involves a mix of experimentation and hope. There’s an openness to this process of discovering an ingredient’s nature for the first time. Sometimes when I cook for this column, I feel nervous about beginning to formulate a recipe. But slowly, I feel this openness enter the process, and I find that trying and journeying towards something become more important than worrying about failure. The act of making is itself enough to settle and calm the mind.
Maraq cad is a Somali lamb broth that my mum would cook for my siblings and me on cold days when we were growing up. We didn’t always get generous cuts of meat, but the flavour of the soup all comes through the bones and gristle. We always ate it with pita bread, pulled apart into tiny pieces to soak up the broth. If we were lucky, we got a bone with marrow to suck out before the adults got to it.
Looking back, I think that maraq cad was something my mum cooked when she was tired – it was much simpler than her more elaborate dishes, like bariis iskukaris (one-pot rice with meat and veg) or suugo and baasto (Somali Bolognese with pasta, usually made with minced lamb and cumin). As a child, I never really looked forward to eating it because it felt less exciting than our other meals. But now, when I cook maraq cad, I cannot believe that I was ever disappointed with this simple but hugely satisfying aromatic broth.
As I write this, the news is full of warnings that snowstorms and bitter cold are coming our way. The day feels heavy, like the general state of the world. I don’t know how many people understand the difficulties of displacement, and how to feed your children through it. I don’t think I will ever fully understand either, but I think often about how my mum did it every day, nestling us into safety through her meals.
I take comfort from knowing that, whatever happens, there is hope that people can find and make homeplace through food, wherever they may be. As I cooked this maraq cad, I thought of all our mothers who arrived in Britain either through forced displacement or economic migration, and I understood the importance – which I didn’t as a child – of creating a little magic and love in the form of a simple bone broth. As Toni Morrison says, ‘that’s also life’.
Maraq cad with yam dumplings
In this recipe, I keep the essence of my mum’s maraq cad, but add yam dumplings inspired by bell hooks’ Sisters of the Yam. The dumplings add a delicious, comforting doughiness, an experiment of mine that I immensely enjoyed cooking and eating. My kids love it too.This is one of the easiest, satisfying meals to make, especially in cold weather, or when you, or someone in the family is feeling under the weather.