Thursday 30 August - Amazing Kebabs

This is one of those recipes that if I'd seen it in a book I would never have tried. However, my brother cooked this for me a couple of months ago, and we are now eating it regularly, obviously with a few tweaks..

The Kebabs are made up with layers of ingredients.

Layer one - pitta breads that are toasted, then split and then toasted again - they are broken up into the dish. The recipe called for two, but we used four for this sized dish. A bit of Sumac was sprinkled over these.

The next layer -  tomato sauce - I used an onion, some chopped garlic, one home grown green chilli and a tin of tomatoes for this along with salt, pepper and some sugar, and reduced it until lovely and thick - this was then spread over the pitta bread.

Layer three - greek yoghurt - I used normal as I had some in the fridge, but we have used low fat and it works just as well, and to me is preferable. This was whisked and spread over the hot tomato sauce.

Layer four - the kebabs themselves - the recipe calls for beef or lamb, but we had some veal mince in the freezer that I buy up in Waitrose when it's reduced. The mince was mixed up with some salt, pepper, sumac, a touch of grated shallot and some chopped fresh coriander (the recipe had flat parsley, but we are coriander addicts). Formed into small sausage shapes and grilled, then placed on top of the yoghurt.

The final layer is probably what lifts the whole dish - some melted butter, a spoonful of sumac and some pine nuts, warmed through until melted and poured over the whole dish. This is then served straight away - no reheating is involved.

I have to say, that although this sounds peculiar when you first look at it, the combination of the different textures and flavours makes it one of the nicest things I have eaten in a very long time, and it's definitely going to be a regular in this house!