B'STILLA - FESTIVE CHICKEN PIE

It's been a while since I wanted to cook some yummy Moroccan recipes. We first tried B'stilla or Pastilla in Marrakech a few years ago. Such an interesting recipe.. Who'd think a chicken pie with icing sugar and cinnamon on top would taste so amazingly good... And it does

! Traditionally it was cooked with pigeon but nowadays is most common with chicken. And the more modern recipes are also with seafood if you are near the coast. I have to say that I tried a vegetarian one in a very small and fantastic restaurant and it's still in my mind.. it was scrumptious.. I served it with a Moroccan salad - Chakchouka which is made for the midday meal in many households and for dessert we had M'hanncha, an almond filo coil with ice-cream. It was absolutely delicious and it paid off for the amount of work I put in. I can understand that this is a recipe that people make as a celebration to greet the people who come for a visit. Not difficult to make but it is very laborious.

INGREDIENTS

150g smen or butter

1.5kg free-range chicken, cut into 8 pieces

2 large red onions, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

pinch of saffron threads soaked in 2 Tbsp warm water

500ml chicken stock

1 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 Tbsp chopped coriander leaves

5 eggs, lightly beaten

100g blanched almonds, toasted and finely chopped

3 Tbsp icing sugar, plus extra to serve

1 tsp ground cinnamon, plus extra to serve

14 sheets filo pastry

100g smen or butter, extra, melted

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 160C. Melt the smen or butter in a large non-stick frypan over medium heat and brown the chicken well. Set aside in a flameproof caserole.

Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes or until golden. Stir in the garlic and spices, then stir in the saffron, its soaking water and the stock.

Bring to the boil.

Add to the chicken and cover with a lid. Put in the oven for an hour, turning occasionally or until cooked.

Remove the chicken, reserving the sauce. Discard the cinnamon stick. Remove the meat from the bones and cut into small pieces. Increase the oven temperature to 180C.

Add the lemon juice and herbs to the casserole.

Reduce over high heat for 10 minutes until thick.

Reduce the heat to very low, gradually stir in the eggs until scrambled, then remove from the heat. Add the meat and season if necessary.

Mix the almonds with the icing sugar and cinnamon.

Grease a 30 cm pie plate with melted smen or butter.

Stack 8 sheets of filo pastry and brush top sheet with butter. Place that sheet evenly across the pie platewith ends overhanging.

Repeat with the next 7 sheets, brushing and fanning sheets to cover the plate, with pastry overhanging evenly all round. Fill with the chicken mixture and smooth over.

Fold four of the flaps back over, brush with butter and sprinkle with the almond mixture. Fold the remaining four sheets over and brush top with butter.

Brush remaining six filo sheets with butter, fanning onto pies as before. Using kitchen scissors, cut the overhanging pastry evenly around edge about 3cm from edge of plate.

Using a rubber spatula to lift edge of pie, tuck overhanging pastry underneath.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden.

Sift extra icing sugar over top of pie and make a lattice pattern with extra ground cinnamon.

Serves 6-8

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