Name: Pheasant b’stilla
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Moroccan
Ingredients: ½ tsp ground cinnamon; 3 tbsp orange blossom water or 4 tbsp water; 5 tbsp icing sugar; 350 g ground almonds; Ground cinnamon, for dusting; 5 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; About 20-24 warka or filo pastry sheets measuring about 18cm square; 1 tbsp icing sugar, plus extra for dusting; 160 g butter; 1 tbsp chopped coriander; A good pinch of saffron; 1 tsp powdered ginger; 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 1 tsp salt; 1 litre chicken stock; 6 tbsp olive oil; 1 medium onion, peeled, halved and finely chopped; 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed; 1 pheasant

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Mark Hix on Baking

By Mark Hix

Published 2012

About

If you’ve been to Morocco you may have come across b’stilla, pronounced and sometimes spelt pastilla. It’s traditionally made with pigeon and is a sort of sweet and savoury pie using sugar and almonds which were probably originally used to disguise the birds’ gaminess. I normally make it with pheasants as they are plentiful in game season and less fiddly to prepare, though chicken works well too.