That’s a punchy dish:a big plate of raw lamb (or beef or goat),often garnished with raw onion. And yet we as a nation are probably now at the stage where we can recognise the greatness of kibbeh nayyeh,the clean,unadulterated flavours,the fact it works so well on a varied spread of mezze dishes.

First serve

You can choose between two differing stories of kibbeh nayyeh’s origin. There’s the likely one. And there’s the more colourful one. Let’s begin with the likely version:kibbeh nayyeh evolved in the city of Aleppo,in Syria,where inhabitants would slaughter animals on Sundays and feast days and eat the fresh meat raw (explaining the dish’s continued association with holidays). The colourful version involves a 13th-century siege in northern Lebanon,in which a group of Christian Maronites were forced to bunker down in a grotto,under attack from Mamluk soldiers. Unwilling to display their position by lighting cooking fires,the Maronites ate their meat raw. The group was eventually captured and killed,though the popularity of their dish of uncooked meat survived.

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