A taste of Ramadan

Cookery author Ilhan Mohamed Abdi shares her new recipe collection, which captures the spirit and flavours of the Muslim holy month. By Ella Walker

- By Ella Walker

WHEN you speak to most cookery authors as their debut cookbook is about to hit shelves, they've been busy celebrating, sharing tonnes of recipes with their social media followers and gearing up to sign hundreds of books in their publisher's office.

The run-up to Ilhan Mohamed Abdi’s first cookery collection, The Ramadan Kitchen, however, has also involved brain surgery.

“So if I am a bit slow on some of the questions, please bear with me,” she says gently.

Major surgery has not blunted her elation at having written a cookbook though. “I'm very excited, nervous at the same time, but very excited,” she buzzes.

The London-based 36-year-old has 265,000 followers on Instagram and it’s there, particularly during lockdown, that The Ramadan Cookbook was first conceived.

Ilhan says: “I started a Ramadan series online, just live on Instagram. I'd post to tell everyone, ‘This is what we're going to cook. These are the ingredients and kitchen utensils you’re going to need. Join me at six o'clock’ And I'd get hundreds of people come on these lives. It was fantastic.”

What particularly resonated was the fact that, “I would actually show people I was being serious when I said something takes 15 minutes”.

“Like my Somali rice is 15 minutes, one of my most popular recipes, and once they'd seen me actually cook it in front of them online, they'd realise, it really does take 15 minutes, and it really is beginner-friendly,” says Ilhan.