My wife and I belong to a supper club and the theme for this month is Moroccan food. We're suppose to bring the first couse. Ant ideas or recipes. Also what wine would go with general Moroccamn spices?

If you are feeling a bit adventurous in the kitchen, a Bastela would be a great 1st course. It's a Filo dough pastry pie filled with shreaded chicken, almonds, and spices, and topped with powdered sugar. For wine, I would go Riesling.

Eric

Do you have a recipe? I'll try anything once!

yes, I have a recipe at home, will check tonight.

Man, Eric, does that sound yummy! Post away thine recipe.

Allrighty then, here you go. I was first introduced to Bastela at El Mansour, my favorite Moroccan restaurant located out on Clement in San Francisco where we've been going for years and years.

This recipe is from Nort African Cooking, Exotic Delights from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt by Hilaire Walden. This is a fairly lengthy recipe, so I scanned it in and used OCR to turn it into text - seems to have come out ok, but I'm not much of a proof -reader, so you might see some anomolies.

At El Mansour, this is always made with Chicken, and the pieces are always shreaded, not served whole as suggested in this recipe - works quite well. I also think you have quite a bit of lattitude on the cuts of meat you use, I would just buy assorted chicken pieces rather than going through and jointing the bird myself.

----------Begin recipe---------------
Moroccan Pigeon (or Chicken) Pie

--B’STILLA--

B'stilla is one of the great dishes of North Africa. It is served hot-to-the-touch as a first course. To eat it, the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand are plunged through the crust into the steaming filling and the size of morsel required is pulled out.

In Morocco the crust is made of tissue-thin warka but if you are not in Morocco, filo pastry is the most practical type to use, although it will not produce quite the same fine, crisp pie. Traditionally, the poultry portions are left whole but the pie is easier to eat if the bones are removed after cooking. This recipe, from Fez, is a fairly simple version.

Serves 8
2 young pigeons, or 1 medium chicken, jointed
2 red onions
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp crushed saffron threads
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
oil
Salt & pepper
2 Bunches of Celantro, chopped
2 bunches of parsley, chopped
8 small eggs, beaten
10 sheets of filo pastry
3/4 cup blanched almonds, coarsely chopped and toasted
Powdered sugar (optional)
ground cinnamon and powdered sugar for sprinkling

Put the poultry in a large saucepan with the onions,ginger, saffron, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3 tbsp oil, and seasoning. Add just a little water, so the birds are pot roasted and not boiled. Cover and cook gently, turning the poultry occasionally until tender.
Remove the joints from the pan and leave until cool enough to handle. Discard the skin, and bone the joints, if liked. Add the cilantro and parsley to the pan and boil until reduced to a thick, dryish sauce. Over a very low heat, stir in the eggs to scramble them. Remove from the heat.
Preheat the oven to 375°. Thoroughly oil a metal baking tin about 13 inches diameter and 2 inches deep. Lay a sheet of filo pastry in the tin, fitting it in to the shape of the tin and allowing any loose edges to fall over the sides. Brush with oil. Repeat with four more sheets, brushing with oil, so the tin is completely covered.
Cover with the pigeon or chicken pieces, then the egg mixture. Cover with a small sheet of pastry and scatter over the almonds. Sprinkle with 2 tsp cinnamon, and a little powdered sugar, if liked. Fold overhanging edges of pastry over the almonds then cover with the remaining pastry, brushing each sheet with oil. Tuck the edges inside the tin and under the pie. Bake for about 45 minutes until crisp and golden. Sieve powdered sugar over the top and make a lattice with ground cinnamon. Serve hot.

Thank you-

As an aside, after having lived in NYC for 30 years, I could never put anything called pigeon in my mouth. We'll use chicken.

Dr T -

I tend to agree. San Francisco is quite similar in that regard.

Thanks Eric! I'll let you know how it turned out.

Pigeon is a great protein to work with. One of the best dishes I ever had was pigeon en civet stuffed with foie gras and black truffle. Who cares where they hang out.

Ah yes, free range pigeons!

JW

I would eat anything stuffed with foi gras!!!!

A good point.

Last weekend we went to a very nice Vietnamese French place. The chef there has an imagination that knows no boundaries. This time she made foi gras stuffed in a fig. WOW!!! I envy & respect people that can create dishes like that. A real talent, they are...

In Susur (Toronto) we had pan roasted quail stuffed with foie gras that was great. I like it sauteed over mesclun.

My favorite way to have foie gras is a method I stole and then modified from Terra. I stuff agnoloti with foie gras and black truffle mousse. I then serve the ravioli in a light bath of reduced veal stock with a few blanched fava beans and a scattering of black truffle oil. I have also used lobster broth instead of the veal stock and that works very well too.

Does anyone have a Moroccan foie gras dish! Camel stuffed with foie gras????

I have to say that I went to a Moroccan restaurant a couple of times. Not my cup of tea.

love cab chard

I have to agree with you! Another couple chose the theme for this month! It's driving the rest of us crazy trying to find recipes to prepare.