Pastilla

Ingredients

Quantities for 8 servings.

• 1.5 kg Chicken, in pieces
• 400 g Warqa or filo pastry
• 250 g Almonds
• 4 piece Onions
• 6 piece Eggs
• 150 g Butter
• 1 pinch Saffron
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 2 tbsp Cinnamon
• 100 g Icing sugar
• 2 tbsp Orange blossom water
• 40 g Coriander
• to taste Salt and pepper

Method

1. Braise the chicken with the onion, saffron, ginger, coriander and a little water for an hour, until tender.
2. Lift out the meat, shred it, and reduce the sauce with the onion to a thick paste.
3. Beat the eggs into the hot paste and stir over a low heat to coarse curds, then cool it.
4. Fry the almonds golden, cool them and grind them with half the icing sugar and a spoon of cinnamon.
5. Line a tin with overlapping sheets of pastry, buttering each, with a generous overhang.
6. Layer in the egg and onion mass, then the meat, then the almond layer, and sprinkle with orange blossom water.
7. Fold the edges in, cover with two more sheets, brush with butter and bake at 190 °C for forty minutes. Dust with icing sugar and cinnamon.