Pastilla with Almonds and Pigeon - Moroccan Cuisine

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The pastille, flower_shaped ornament of moroccan cuisine, is a subtil lamellar, on the basis of onion and pigeon or chiken, parsley, hard boiled eggs and almonds, a mixture of sugar and salt, perfumed with cinamon, there is a variety of these composants( fish, seafood and slauthring) ; this is the most classical recipe, it's a ceremony dish served as a starter

Ingredients for 12 people

To prepare the Forcemeat

• 8 pigeons or 1 chicken
• 3 pans of minced parsley
• 1kg and a half rasped onion
• 200 g of butter
• coffee spoonful of cinamon
• 1 coffee spoonful of pepper
• coffee spoonful of natural safran
• 8 hard boiled eggs
• 300 g of blanched, fried and peeled almonds
• 1 cup of sugar
• salt

To prepare the Pastille

• 1 kg of big pastille leaves
• 150 g of butter
• churned eggs
• cinamon and chilly sugar in saucers

preparation

The Forcemeat

Put the pigeons in a pressure cooker with parsley, onion, butter, salt, pepper, safran, cinamon and a little bit of sugar, cook on a little fire and add some water when necessary.

When cooked, ,remove the pigeon and leave the sauce on fire to diminish, till the liquid is over.Remove the pigeon's bones and put it in a container, mix almonds with sugar in another container, cut the hard boiled eggs in a third container

Setting of the pastille

Butter the pastille pan, put the first couch of leaves( the smooth side underneath) overlap them to 1/3 outside the pan, put some other leaves in the center to consolidate.

Spread out a couch of sauce, add pieces of pigeon, sprinkler of sweet almonds and pieces of hard boiled egg, cover with leaves, do it again untill the forcemeat is over, bring down, outstriping leaves, glue them with churned egg and cover again with leaves, spread out some softened butter an egg over the pastille

Cook on a middle fire during 20 mn, then remove the pastille ,put it on a big plate, return the other side and put it back in the cooking pan with some pieces of butter.Put back on fire for some minutes.

Put slowly the pastille in aplate to serve, decorate with arm of cross made out of shilly sugar and cinamon, serve in saucers.