Chicken Pastilla

So it has nothing to do with the word Pastilla being a sweet meat dish with cinnamon, so lets get that one straight.

Pastilla is purely the pastry.

It is the word that you put in front of it that makes the dish.

So chicken or pigeon Pastilla will have the ground almond some  sweetener and cinnamon.

Where as a Fish or Seafood Pastilla with have no almonds and are with lemon, basil or dill.

And they also do Sweet Pastilla which are with round almonds and flavours like rose or orange flower water.

OK so back to todays cook.
Chicken Pastilla.

 

Cut by hand supper fine than chop till you make a wet onion paste.

Don't blend as this is just to mushie and not the Moroccan way.

2/3 Parsley and 1/3 coriander mix is the traditional blend.

Add some minced garlic

 

Turmeric,  ginger and real saffron ( hmmmm another Marrakesh Fusion myth busted) Moroccans DONT use cubed saffron as it is cheep and mainly with a carrier and a colouring agent!!

 

By hand rub the chicken to blend all the flavours adding in some sunflower oil.
Lid on, heat high until you start to see some steam, turn the heat down ... DONT take off the lid

1 small bit of cinnamon stick.

Today we are making our own small dishes so just double it for two. 

No liquid just cook in its own juices for about 1 1/2 hour stirring occasioning, always with the lid on, let brown a bit and deglazes with a splash of water near the end of the cook.

Should look like this at the end of the cook.

 Strip the meat from the bone and cut into pieces set aside.

Divide the cooking pot flavours in 1/2 ...

1/2 into the cut up chicken.

Note the 2 pots below Sandy took hers to a more cooked state and was definitely a better finish dish the roasted flavour much better. 

Mine was wetter and less roasted flavour, so pleased we are doing different pots as you can see which way is better.

Sandy a 10 for roasting flavour

Peter a 8.5

Now with the other 1/2 of the cooking pot flavour add a knob of butter and bring to a fast sizzle add one egg stirring like you have no tomorrow ... as you want to combine the egg with the cooking pot flavours to make a paste and not end up with scrambled egg with a cooking pot flavours on the side.

 

Now we haven't even talked about the ground almond base.

So lets just say, get raw almond, blanch in a bot of boiling water.

When cool enough to handle grab from the bottom of the nut and squeeze and pot them out of the skins, this was so simple nuts flying everywhere.

Heat up some sunflower oil and cook for about 8mins 

 

 

Blend when cool with some sugar ( hmmmm that sugar again)

 Get you Pastilla sheel and layer the almonds first

 

 

Then in with the chicken

 

Then that egg mix

 

Then wrap
Clearly Sandy went to food wrapping school

And  then their was mine ... a boys job!!

 Turn over to bake in a 200 deg oven, with our little name badges on so we actually get to eat what we made!

Sprinkle of icing sugar and a line of cinnamon

  

Now for the autopsy, sandy's food memory of Dubai is close to this way of doing it. Tick.

The big difference from Marrakesh Fusion way is that this one is all as 3 separate layers so you could taste all the layers so a big tick for that ...and not a one pot wonder Marrakesh Fusion Style.

 

I'm still not convinced by the sugar and cinnamon but that is the Moroccan traditional way to serve this dish so a big tick to learn the correct way.

So how could we make it ours and suit my taste buds, well I did mention after my Marrakesh Fusion Style bad experience that loose the sugar and the cinnamon!!
Well loose the sugar in the almond and have less almond compared to the egg and chicken components. Dust with the cinnamon OK and maybe just a hit of icing sugar.
Then maybe make the egg and chicken components with more moisture.
Add a sauce on the side as it was just too dry as the almond remove most of the moisture.
So all round VERY tasty but a little dry.