A Moroccan Delicacy: B’Stilla

A Monday Morning Cooking Club Work In Progress: Moroccan Flaky Pies

A Monday Morning Cooking Club Work In Progress: Moroccan Flaky Pies

My first taste of b’stilla was at a cooking class by talented Australian (of Lebanese descent) chef Greg Malouf. I remember the palm-sized flaky filo pie stuffed with spiced pigeon and toasted almonds, dredged with icing sugar and cinnamon. Crisp and soft, savoury, spiced and sweet, all at once. Oh what a joy! Call it what you will – bastilla – bisteeya – pastilla – it is a small round hand made filo pastry pie traditionally filled with spiced (think cinnamon, cumin, ginger, allspice and more) squab or pigeon. Toasted flaked almonds are often inside.  Or quail, chicken and rabbit. The most intriguing and unusual part of the pie is that it is sprinkled with icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) and ground cinnamon. A sweet touch on a savoury pie. Yum!

My next and equally memorable b’stilla experience was on a recent trip to gorgeous Marrakech in Morocco where we found ourselves (after our first b’stilla) choosing restaurants based on whether or not they served b’stilla.  We had an incredible one at Al Fassa (exotic, romantic setting sadly equals bad light, so no photo!) and a really great one at The Restaurant at the stunning, jaw-dropping Amanjena (see the ‘THEIRS’ pic). We just may have gone back for seconds and thirds.

I tried my hand at them this week, with limited success. Mine look ok. And they taste OK, but I think it is a work in progress. The recipe I found calls for dicing the chicken before cooking in spices. I’m not mad about the filling made that way – I prefer the chicken to be cooked first and then shredded or torn. Next time I will be trying this recipe from Greg Malouf as I know his recipes are always reliable in the hope I may still be able to master the b’stilla: B’Stilla with Rabbit. The ‘HIS’ photo below is taken from Greg’s recipe post and looks just beautiful with the stencilled sugared hand. Sigh…

It’s Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) time – the twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join this monthly ‘lunch date’. A topic is posted at the beginning of the month, everyone taking a turn, and all recipes are posted on the same day by this random and fascinating group of food bloggers, writers and people who just love cooking from all around the world. All the wonderful posts from the other #letslunchers will appear at the bottom of this post in a couple of days.

This month’s topic (thanks Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan is a dish “that you learned to love from traveling somewhere and maybe even learned to make it while on vacay”.

 

Bastilla_1_350
HIS

 

IMG_8326
THEIRS
IMG_9815
MINE

[box]We’re now on YouTube! Have you subscribed to our new recipe channel yet?

Did you love this recipe? Don’t miss out on our original collection in “Monday Morning Cooking Club” and our latest collection in “The Feast Goes On

Did you love this post? Want to keep up with the Monday Morning Cooking Club girls? Click here![/box]

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
WhatsApp
LinkedIn

8 Comments

  1. Annabelle

    This month’s round has been so interesting — great-looking dishes I’ve never heard of! I would definitely eat that, although I think the odds of my being in Morocco any time soon are low.

  2. linda@spiceboxtravels

    Lovely! There is a modern take on this at Mourad (Mourad Lahlou’s new restaurant in San Francisco) which I like even more than the traditional. You should try it next time you visit SF!

  3. Margaret

    I think yours looks just fine. Isn’t baking always a work in progress?? I will have to try this one.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Now for Something Sweet

Social Media

Recently

Instagram

This is going to be a difficult Pesach.
Once again.
It is hard to celebrate freedom if we are not all free, and as long as there are 59 hostages - our brothers and sisters - still held against their will IN HELL in Gaza, we are not free.

We will still do our best to enjoy this time. We need to acknowledge and celebrate that the Jewish community has survived thousands of years of the greatest existential challenges and not only are we still here but we are strong, resilient and THRIVING. As is Israel!

If you just don’t feel like cooking much this year, especially after the Seders, I get it. 

But here’s something that will take you less than 15 minutes to prep, cook and get on the plate.

In Danny’s (husband) family they call it ‘matzo egg’ but it has morphed into ‘matzo brei’ over the decades. It is the one thing Danny can cook well, in fact he is the one who taught me how to make it.

(To pimp it up, sprinkle with feta and chopped chives.)

MATZO ‘egg’ BREI

4 pieces matzo
water
2 eggs
60 ml (1/4 cup) milk
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 tablespoon butter

to serve
sour cream and salt
or cinnamon sugar

Break the matzo into 2 cm pieces and place in a bowl. Cover with tap water and soak for 5 minutes. Drain and squeeze out the excess water. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and salt. Add the matzo and stir to combine. 

Heat a medium frying pan pan over high heat, add the butter. When melted and sizzling, add the matzo mixture to the pan.

Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook for a few minutes. Once the bottom sets, toss the mixture around in the pan. Let it set again for a minute and repeat until it is cooked through.

Serves 2 (in my family) - 4 (in most families)

#pesach2025 #pesachrecipes #passover #jewishcooking not#chocolatecake
#easycooking #easypassoverrecipes
...

195 12

Thumbprint Jam Bickies for Pesach

60 g potato starch
60 g fine matzo meal
40 g caster sugar
30 g almond meal
80 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
zest of ½ small lemon
1 egg yolk

tart apricot jam

Whisk the potato starch, matzo meal, sugar, almond meal and lemon zest together in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until you have crumbs, add the egg yolk and mix until a dough is formed. This can be done in the food processor.

You will need a lined baking tray.
Divide the dough into three, and then each piece into eight.
Gently roll each piece into a smooth ball and place them on the prepared tray.
Using the top of your thumb, make an indent in the top of each cookie and flatten slightly.
Spoon in a little jam into each indentation.
Bake for 15 minutes at 180C or until golden on the base.
Makes 24 bickies.

These bickies are the most exciting Passover biscuits we have seen in a long time - because they don’t taste like Passover biscuits! The recipe has an interesting story.

Eve Graf was the wife of the first rabbi of the Cardiff Reform Synagogue in Wales. She was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1918, and was brought up by her widowed mother. Eve met and married Rabbi Graf in Berlin when she was only 19, and as newlyweds they were forced to flee from their home with his parents. Rabbi Graf was outspoken against the Nazi regime and after Kristallnacht it was no longer safe for them. In the spring of 1939, they were sponsored for immigration to Britain. They ended up in the Welsh capital, Cardiff, to set up the newly formed reform community; it is still the only one in Wales.
In the early 1950s, as the first Rebbetzin, Eve Graf encouraged the many refugee members of the newly founded community to enliven the synagogue’s social events with their baking skills - in those days the smell and taste of almonds and vanilla was incredibly luxurious. This is her recipe, originally published in our third book ‘It’s Always About the Food’

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

#jewishfood #passover #pesach #passoverrecipes #pesachcookies #bestrecipes
...

644 31

Facebook

Categories

MMCC Related

Related Posts