One of the gifts I received this Christmas was a cookbook called Jerusalem. Today we popped out to various shops including Rosie’s (an Iranian shop in Northway) and some of the stores down Cowley Road and collected the ingredients to start trying the recipes. We had fresh hummus (blitzed chickpeas and tahini with lemon juice and garlic) as a starter and a slow-cooked chicken for the main course.

Both were pretty tasty, although I’ll have to keep on practising to really get them in my grasp. Star ingredient was the handful of barberries, which add both colour and sharp, sour hits of flavour. I will definitely be cooking my way to the Holy City again before long.