Name: Dove Bistalia
Yield: Serve 1 per head
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: olive oil; salt and pepper; 6 sprigs of cilantro (coriander), chopped; 6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar; ¼ cup orange flower water; 1 pound ground almonds (about 5 cups); 1 large onion, grated; 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 4 sprigs of parsley, chopped; 4 cloves garlic, chopped; 1 teaspoon saffron; 2 egg yolks, mixed with a little water; 6 young doves, boned and quartered with their giblets; 2 teaspoons ground cumin; 4 cups water; 1 cup (2 sticks) butter; 6 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and chopped; generous ½ teaspoon saffron melted butter; 23 sheets phyllo dough; pinch of cinnamon

Preparation info

Serve
1
per head

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Game Cookbook

By Clarissa Dickson Wright and Johnny Scott

Published 2004

About

You can see how this magnificent dish came out of the kitchens of the Ottoman Empire. It is a lot easier to make than it looks and will amaze your friends; you can even make mini ones. The trick is to use lots of oil on the pastry dough leaves. I have not attempted to tell you how to make leaves of warka, the traditional pastry used, which requires complicated things done on the back of a heated copper bowl with a flour and water paste. If you want to go there, I recommend