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

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