Shishlik Kebab and Chickpea Gratin

My lovely Israeli friends Jules and Francesca inspired tonights dinner.

Francesca had recently sent me a copy of Iranian Cuisine Kosher (Leevim Vida) which a lovely book detailing traditional Iranian food, in both English and Farsi, with gorgeous photo’s; unfortunately I can’t find any information on the web about it though, so can’t post you a link. 

The Shishlik stood out as an essential to be cooked right away, despite the fact that I couldn’t barbeque it over hot coals as requested in the recipe. Even though they were just simply grilled, they were amazing.  I used finely diced lamb and it was so moist, almost crunchy on the outside, delicious.

How did Jules contribute?  Well in a double act with Nigel Slater to be precise.  Nigel had a fabulous sounding recipe for chickpea and spinach gratin in this months Observer Food Monthly and Jules had just sent me a big bag of chickpeas, this just had to be cooked. I didn’t have any spinach left from yesterday so I substituted it for a finely diced red pepper, to add both colour and flavour. Nigel suggests that this gratin could be a main course, I disagree, I don’t think there is enough depth to it for a whole meal, stunning as a side dish but that’s about as far as it could go.