Kebabs but no chilli sauce

There are times on a Friday evening when only a kebab will do. Today is one of those Friday's. By the time I have run around shuttling various offspring and sometimes also partner to a vide range of sporting and social activites the last thing I have time for is cooking a complex meal. Something grilled and a salad is often the order of the day. Usually I make this but the Kebab shop does a really good line in meat on skewers even if they almost insist you buy chips to go with!

This week the urge for a kebab has come on me again but today, with the help of Madhur Jaffrey's ultimate curry bible I am making my own.
Toasting the chickpea flour is new to me but smells wonderful. It is a pity that once you have toasted it and left it to cool there is no further reference to it in the recipe. I assumed it had to be added to the kebab mix as a thickening agent so that is what I did. This mix without a thickener would not work as the tomatoes and onions make it quite wet.

The mix is easy to handle and shapes up well to produce six good sized patties. The mix is not intended to be impailed on skewers but left as very sophisticated burgers. The suggestion is to use naan to wrap the kebabs and that is what we did.

The kebabs stayed together as they cooked and the spicing came through well. The mix of fresh and dried coriander along with the cumin gave an almost North African feel to this. If you used lamb mince and left out the birds eye chilis then this would be fantastic served with cous cous.

The chili heat makes a yogurt dressing really important for the less asbestos tongued of us. I found just plain yogurt to be the best as it didn't interrupt with the subtlety of the spicing.

There is no mixture left which is a testament to it's popularity. I have already had a request to use this book to cook the nation's favourite dish.... Chicken tikka masala.... So watch and return to see if it lives up to my daughter's expectations