b’stilla
These two recipes come from “The Moroccan Collection”, by Hilaire Walden, published by Hamlyn, London ISBN 0 600 60584 1, in print. Thoroughly recommended to anyone with an interest in Moroccan or North African cuisine. You can probably get one from Amazon (but use a fake/free email drop because they spam your mailbox afterwards).
Chicken B’stilla
Ingredients
1 small chicken, 1 large onion, 2 teaspoons grated ginger, pinch of saffron, 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, 4 eggs, 1 ounce butter, 3 ounces chopped blanched almonds, 2 teaspoon of sugar, 9 ounce pack filo pastry, olive oil for brushing, salt and pepper to taste, icing sugar
Method
1. Put chicken into a saucepan (you may want to joint it first), with the onion, ginger, saffron, coriander, 1 teaspn cinnamon, parsley, cilantro, salt and pepper. Simmer till tender in just enough water. (NOTE: I cannot stand reheated chicken, so I just browned it first, mixed it with the other ingredients, and cooked it as a pie).
2. Remove chicken and boil down the cooking sauce to a syrup. Remove the chicken meat and chop.
3. Beat the syrup into the eggs and scramble the eggs in butter.
4. Toast the almonds, and add the remaining sugar and cinnamon.
5. NOW, using overlapping sheets of filo pastry, brushing each sheet with oil, make a square either large for a whole pie or small for individual pies of 3 sheets of filo pastry. Cover with the eggs, then chicken, then almonds. Fold up the sides to cover.
6. Bake at gas 6, 400F25 mins till golden.
7. Sprinkle with icing sugar and remaining cinnamon.
This is served as a STARTER, believe it or not! But who cares.
VERDICT: EXCELLENT, even in the low fat/cal version which substitutes ground sultanas for the sugar. (mmm….you might like it better that way…)
Lamb B’stilla
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1/1/2 inch of root ginger grated, ½ teaspoon dried mint, ½ teaspoon paprika, 8 oz minced lamb, 6 oz red lentils 2 tabs tomato puree, harissa, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 oz raisins 20 fluid ounces of stock, 4 oz filo pastry poppy seeds, salt and pepper
Fry the vegetables, add the paprika and fry one minute, add the mince and brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook gently until the water has been absorbed and the lentils are done. Make up the pie as above and sprinkle with poppy seeds and bake. You could sprinkle it lightly with rose water when you take it out.
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