Whenever I see the word kebab, I think of the left bank of the Seine, and all those Middle Eastern restaurants with huge, alluring kebabs lined up in the window. Prawns, beef, chicken, crays, and so on. Trouble is, it’s generally a con. Those inside are about a third the size, and the bill singes the pockets.

Horror memories of kebabs have not deferred my enthusiasm for this ancient Middle Eastern method of roasting or barbecuing bite-sized chunks of meat. The trick with kebabs is not to tart them up by decorating them with vegetables. These look nice in shop windows, but to my taste never form a satisfactory conclusion. Either the meat is overcooked or the vegetables undercooked, or both. Stick with the sticks of meat. If you must have vegetables this way, do them separately, and keep kin with kin. That way, you can control the finished product. Your meat is rare, or well-cooked. Your vegetables are tender or crisp.

Remember, when you’re making kebabs, that they derive from the Turkish word for roast meat. The addition of skewers creates a ’shish’ kebab, again, the anglicisation of the Turkish.

Kebabs can be whatever you like. I prefer chicken from the underfillet or lamb fillets, each of them tender when cooked quickly, and still tender when overcooked, each a possibility with mass cooking on a grill.

WINE: The Middle East has never been big on serving wine with its cuisine, for obvious reasons. There are some lovely medium- weight Coonawarra shiraz-based wines that would hit the right spot here.