Cookbook author Nadiya Hussain goes to her neighbours and local community in Milton Keynes, England, to learn about dishes from faraway places, particularly during the holy month.
Every year during Ramadan, she is exposed to new cuisines as the families on her street meet to swap parcels of food. Across the road from her home is a “lovely” neighbour from Malaysia with whom they regularly share iftars. “We love to share food with him when we can,” she told The National.
It’s not just the street’s Muslims who take part in the celebrations. “Our neighbours who don’t celebrate Ramadan, we always make a plate or share food with them,” Hussein said.
Another family from Sri Lanka brings over pastries such as sesame and jaggery balls once a week – which Hussain’s children love. “Just before breaking our fast they drop off pastries. Every time my kids see them they will not eat what I’ve cooked. They will eat the neighbours' pastries first because they’re so good,” she said.
Hussain, who was born in nearby Luton and grew up around her family's Bangladeshi community, moved to the rapidly expanding town of Milton Keynes almost 10 years ago.
“There’s a huge sense of sharing and community which I love," she said.
She is one of the UK’s best-loved food writers, rising to fame after winning the Great British Bake Off 10 years ago. Her bestselling books and cooking shows watched by millions give practical, easy-to-follow British recipes, often with a twist derived from her Bangladeshi heritage and cultures of others.
Her latest book, Rooza: A Journey Through Islamic Cuisine inspired by Ramadan and Eid, gathers recipes from Muslim communities around the world. Many of these were compiled through shared meals with her neighbours and friends in Milton Keynes.
The book features recipes from 25 countries with their own Muslim communities – from a Mauritian fish rougaille, to Indonesian half circle-shaped cakes filled with coconut custard, and the Tunisian lablabi, a chickpea stew. Some dishes were taken from countries she has travelled to, or longed to visit.
Hussain spent weeks gathering tips on how to make the perfect lablabi from her circle in the UK, before finally trying the dish when she travelled to Tunisia for her 40th birthday last year. She had already completed the book but was “surprised” to find that her version and the locally made one tasted “just as delicious”.
“I can see why you’d eat that during Ramadan, because it's wholesome, it's filling and it's delicious,” she said.
The book marks a turn for the television chef, who baked a three-tier orange drizzle cake for the late Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. It is the first time she has written a book dedicated to the Muslim tradition, shining a light on the customs and incredible variety of dishes cooked during Ramadan and Eid.
Hussain is aware the cosmopolitan spirit of her neighbourhood in Milton Keynes is not always shared by others across the UK. She had expected a backlash for her book, and has previously spoken out about anti-Muslim trolling she had received online.
This time, Hussain believes she lost about a thousand Instagram followers overnight after she announced her book on her channel in January.
“What I noticed last night after about 15 hours of announcing Rooza is that I lost about 1,000 followers. This loss usually happens when I talk about culture, faith or current affairs. Deep down inside me I kind of knew this book would cause some kind of controversy,” she said in a social media post shortly after the book announcement.
Convincing her publishers that she should write a book about Ramadan was also a challenge, she said in the post.
“As a British Bangladeshi I have to work 10 times harder for 10 times less. Writing a book like this was not handed to me on a plate; I had to convince people that it was a valuable book, that it was very much needed in world of publishing,” Hussain added.
She hopes the book will help give non-Muslims an insight into the sharing and community spirit that brings her neighbourhood together during Ramadan.
“We’ve worked really hard to encapsulate what Ramadan looks like to people who don’t know. I hope it gives them a little insight into what it means for people like me and what it can look like,” she said. “It’s really special that I can share that. During Ramadan people’s hearts are so big. Its genuinely mind-blowing how generous people are,” she said.
The book also includes Middle East dishes, such as the Libyan bazin, a steamed dough with meat stew and egg – derived from Berber, Arab and Italian cooking traditions . “Lots of cultures cross over,” she says.
The opening chapter from Turkey is dedicated to her good friend Emir. She recalled how Emir’s mother, who she met last month, had noted that the book’s Iraqi recipe for kibbe, a meatball mixed with wheat, also existed in Turkey. “But they call it something else,” Hussain said.
Her children, now aged 18, 17, and 14, also draw her attention to new dishes. “A lot of the recipes were influenced by how we eat at home. My kids spend so much time online, and they want to eat particular things from this part of the world or that part of the world. Often they come up to me and say, 'This is what I’ve seen online, could you make this for me?' That's where the inspiration came from.”
But every year Ramadan feels all the more fragile, as she realises that her children may soon no longer all live in the same house. “Our kids are much much older, they are starting to make choices and decisions. Their world is big right now. One drives so his world is expanding hugely,” Hussain said.
She admits that it has “taken time” to accept that while her children may continue to gather at her house for big feasts and celebrations, they may not always be there for the full month of Ramadan as they are now.
“It makes you realise you are not just their world. Actually, you are not their world at all. Their world is so much bigger than you. It takes real guts to admit that and be OK with that. It’s taken time but I’m all right with it. It’s lovely to see them flourish,” she said.
“For now every Ramadan is really special because we don’t know when which one is going to move out for uni. For me, every year is really special because I have them, right now. If we’re lucky enough hopefully the family will get bigger.”
But Hussain quietly hopes that they may choose to stay home for longer to take advantage of her cooking. “Food cooked at home, where else are you going to get that?”
