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

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