My mistake with the mix I think is quite simple.

I currently take the onion, garlic and fresh chillis - some roasted red peppers which were bottled in oil which I dried off and this was added to the blend -and my spicing - normally cummin, paprika and coriander and a little lemon zest - sometimes some cinamon, salt and pepper and mouli it down to a paste - I then add the herbs (varying between fresh oregano, thyme, mint - but always including parlsey stalks) and chop it a bit more. This makes this paste very wet from the onion because it's mostly "water". I then add this to the meat and mix it with some ciabatta breadcrumb. (Very authentic ........)

In future I'm going to chop the onions and herps and use more of a slightly less hot chilli which I'll also chop. After refrigeration it should stay on the wider skewers. The mix sounds complex and overwhelming but it's a very light touch and is to my taste and fairly close the the Lebanese (!) version of Adana I have in some places I visit - in particula in my visits to the Levante chain in Vienna. They tough me how to make their levante bread which is an enormous flat bread "painted" with yoghurt that balloons in the oven ..... I'm hungry!

I'm not mincing my own lamb but using bought mince which I think will be around 15% - although I know that 20% would be better. I'm going to try a cheaper mix and see if that also helps as I'm always buying leanest.

Thanks for the encouragement and tips.