Rooza is the book Nadiya Hussain never imagined she would write. A collection of Ramadan recipes from around the world, it’s her 10th cookbook, but the journey to it was never guaranteed.
“I never saw a book like this growing up, so I just didn’t imagine that I would be the one to write it,” Nadiya tells The New Arab.
“But sometimes you have to dream big and sometimes you have to fight the fight and push back and say, this is what I want to do and this is what I want to write. I think that’s really important to have that fight in you,” the British chef and author adds.
“Sometimes it does take it out of you, but sometimes it’s worth it. It’s not always worth it, but this is worth it.”
That fight has been hard on Nadiya Hussain, although she looks at ease sitting in her publisher Penguin Random House’s office, wearing a floral dress, chunky knit jumper and black hijab.
Announcing Rooza on her Instagram, she saw an instant decrease in her followers. In a subsequent video, she discussed that while she often lost followers when she spoke about culture, faith or current affairs, she had never lost followers because of a cookbook before.
In the video, she said: “Deep down inside of me I knew this book would cause some sort of controversy because there’s faith attached to my food. Now as a British Bangladeshi Muslim woman, I am deeply proud of everything that I do because I have to work 10 times harder for 10 times less and still I have to suffer the disappointment and angst that comes with anything I do.
“Now writing a cookbook like this did not come with ease… I had to convince people that it was a valuable book, that it was very much needed in the world of publishing.”
In its highly celebratory nature – of food, of ingredients, of different countries and cultures – Rooza is in itself a pushback against those who may be prejudiced at best, and racist at worst.
With its sumptuous photographs and unabashed embracing of the Islamic world’s cuisine, it’s a beautiful addition to any kitchen where Ramadan is marked.
Split into recipes by country, Rooza contains both familiar dishes (like baklava and puff puffs) and ones that may be unfamiliar to many (like koeksisters, a kind of spiced syrupy doughnut from West and South Africa, and kandu kukulhu, a Maldivian tuna curry with rice).
Nadiya’s essential Ramadan prep: “I don’t do huge amounts of prep. I do kind of do things like make sure I’ve got plenty of garlic and ginger, which is super important when I’m cooking. What I hate doing, literally my worst job in the world is peeling onions. So what I do is I buy a five-kilo bag of onions, and then I peel it and I roast all the onions in the oven. Because onions raw stink the freezer out. Roast all your onions with a bit of oil and a bit of salt in the oven and blitz it down. And then just batch it up and freeze it.”
A lot of the inspiration and ideas for new recipes come to Nadiya via her three teenage children, who, she says, spend a lot of time each Ramadan looking at recipes on social media.
“Where I might be spending a little bit extra time on ibadah (worship), I might do a bit more salah (prayer) or spend a bit more time at the mosque, they’re teenagers,” she says. “Let’s face it, they’re like ‘we’d like to do the bare minimum, thank you very much’. So they will be on YouTube or TikTok and whatever, looking at recipes from all over the world. And they’ll send me videos and they want to try different things.
“When they say they want to try something, I’ll just make it. That’s kind of where those recipes were inspired from. It’s like, well, actually, why not just do recipes from around the world? Because that’s how we cook at home. So we do some traditional foods, but often that’s alongside stuff that the kids just fancy.”
Family and community are at the heart of Rooza and of Nadiya’s cooking, and that’s reflected in the book’s title: Nadiya grew up calling Ramadan by the word Rooza, which translates to “fasting”.
“I have never come up with a title [for a book] so quick in my life,” she says. “It just felt really right to call it Rooza. I think certainly for the Bangladeshi community who speak Bengali, they will look at that and know instantly what that means. So I think was really important to me.”
Nadiya’s go-to Ramadan breakfast: “When we grew up, we used to eat rice and curry. For us [now], it’s really simple: it’s toast, cereal, usually like an overnight oat, and electrolytes.”
Rooza is a very personal book, and Nadiya describes it as being “a little bit of my heart, a little bit of me.”
She adds, “To be able to write something like this was a privilege.”
Nadiya Hussain’s cookbook is part of a larger trend of mainstream businesses embracing Muslim customers, from supermarkets stocking Ramadan ranges (including decorations as well as food) to retailers who put together Eid gifts.
“For me, it’s quite cool to walk through town and see Eid and Ramadan displays up,” she says. “You just feel seen.”
In Rooza, Nadiya has fulfilled a long-term ambition and has been seen. “Every Ramadan I’m like, I really want to write this book,” she says. “I could write one every year for the next 10 years.”
We can only hope.
Sarah Shaffi is a freelance literary journalist and editor. She writes about books for Stylist Magazine online and is the Books Editor at Phoenix Magazine
Follow her here: @sarahshaffi
