bastilla, annotated

[eimarra]

My husband and I have two standby dishes we take to potluck gatherings. (N.B.: "Potluck" traditionally refers to the fact that unexpected company has to eat whatever's being served, or as Merriam-Webster puts it, "the regular meal available to a guest for whom no special preparations have been made." However, everyone I know uses it to refer to a gathering where everyone brings a random dish to share. Merriam-Webster lists this as the second variant (1b), and curmudgeons don't like to use it at all. Well, nyah to the prescriptivists.) One is a couscous salsa, adapted from Mark Miller's Great Salsa Book (adapted because, among other things, my husband doesn't like raisins). The other is an appetizer version of bastilla.

Bastilla (which is a transliteration, and may also be spelled b'stilla, Pastilla, Bsteeya, Bastilla, or Bstilla), is a northern African dish that we first encountered in the Moroccan restaurant at Epcot Center. It is often made in a large pie shape and served as a main course; I've adapted it to make finger food appetizers.

Take a box of phyllo dough from the freezer and allow it to thaw while you prepare the filling.

3 1/2 chicken breasts (chickens have one breast; humans have two)
2 cups water
1/4 cup butter (suppose you could use olive oil for this)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch saffron
2-3 cinnamon sticks
salt and white pepper, to taste

Combine above ingredients and bring to boil; lower heat to simmer. Cook until chicken is tender. Remove chicken from liquid and set aside to cool.

6 whole eggs, well beaten

Add eggs to reserved liquid; simmer over low heat 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain, reserving liquid. Remove cinnamon sticks from eggs.

Shred chicken. Mix in cooked eggs. If mixture is dry, add in some of reserved liquid. Add:

3/4 to 1 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Okay, that's the easy part. Next is the time-consuming bit. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit. (That's about 175 degrees Celsius, or what truly old-fashioned cookbooks refer to as "a moderate oven.")

Lay out a sheet of phyllo dough. Brush with melted butter or spray with butter-flavored cooking spray. Lay another sheet on top of it and repeat the butter or spray. Keep the sheets you're not currently using covered--dried phyllo doesn't work. I cut the sheet in quarters, parallel to the short ends. (Given the size of the counter I use, I actually have three pairs of sheets laid out side by side and work on them all at once.)

Place a spoonful of filling toward the end of each quarter. Fold the end over to cover the filling. Then fold over a thin strip (no more than 1/4 inch) along each side to make sure the filling doesn't slip out. Roll the folded end over until there's no more dough left. Put the bastilla on a cookie sheet.

When the cookie sheet is full, stick it in the oven and bake until the bastilla are golden. Let cool. Remove bastilla to a serving platter and dust with powdered sugar and ground cinnamon. (Really--don't skip the powdered sugar. The combination of sweet and savory is perfect!)

This recipe makes *a lot.* Dozens and dozens of the size I've specified. I made some to take to a party last week--we took 5 dozen, and I used about half the filling that I prepared. If you take them to a party, make it clear that this is an appetizer, not a dessert.

Comments

[marfisk]

Ooh, that looks delicious :). So as a main meal you skip the phyllo and just use a pie crust?

[eimarra]

No, you use layers of phyllo to make both top and bottom crusts.

[marfisk]

Okay, that sounds workable :). I live in a different world than you do, and appetizers is not something I generally work with ;).

[eimarra]

Heh. I go to maybe 3 or 4 parties a year, and they don't usually want me to bring chocolate. Appetizers are my alternative.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm.....B'stilla. We make this when we throw our "Morrocan" themed parties. I think this is probably my favorite. Which reminds me, we have one still in the freezer that we need to use.

[eimarra]

Well, then, throw a party! :-)

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention, we usually use chicken thighs for this. It's a darker meat, and is a bit closer to the original which is supposed to be "squab" or pigeon. Plus it has the added bonus of often being cheaper. Though it's not usually boned, and therefore more work in the shredding phase.

[eimarra]

I hadn't realized that squab was a darker meat, although I did know that was the traditional fowl. Thanks for the tip. The stores around here do sell boneless thighs. I just never thought about buying them because the white meat is supposed to be healthier.

[elizabethboyce.livejournal.com]

Sounds delicious! In what form do you use the chicken for cooking? Skin and bone, or boneless / skinless?

[eimarra]

I use boneless/skinless chicken breasts.