I am not sure I have been effusive enough about the freekeh I made at the weekend and I have not given sufficient credit for where I first read about it and took the idea of what to do with it.

With regards to the credit I should lift my hat (again) to Sabrina Gayhor and her second book on Persian cooking Sirocco. Having bought the bag of freekeh and having had it sat on the side at home I went through various books of middle- eastern cooking to work out how best to deal with it and the only mention I could find was in the Sabrina Gayhor book and whatever she suggested to do with it worked a treat.

The only misfire was in the quality made and that was my fault and worked out ok in any event. I should have spotted that the recipe said “for 8” and applied the appropriate discount for the 3 that were eating . Of course I did not and we were left with a vast bowl of the stuff to get through.

So I have had it for my lunch over the course of the last three days with added chicken, tomato and Turkish green pepper.

It has been a welcome break from the normal dry (but smelly) cheese sandwich.

I am likely to be back on the cheese sandwiches tomorrow so I took myself into town over lunchtime today to see if I could track down a Liverpool supply of freekeh. It transpired that I could but at 3 or 4 times the price of the bag I bought in Oxford a few weeks ago.

So it would appear that only next visit to Oxford I am going to have to make my way down the Cowley Road to stock up on both mograbeh and freekeh.

As for the taste – because it has been lightly smoked it has about the hint of a far away BBQ which is not too bad.