Bastila of Fes with Chicken or Quail

A complicated recipe with difficult to follow instructions. But the end result was fabulous.

I had wanted to make this dish, because I had it in Marrakesh, at the Majorelle Gardens (but made with pigeon). It was a beautiful place, and the food was heavenly.

The dish I prepared was very adequate, but didn't match my memories (ah, but can it ever?).

Almonds are sautéed in vegetable oil - I think it only needs half the oil called for, perhaps even less. These are ground with sugar. Chicken is cooked with saffron, ginger, etc, and then the meat is shredded. Juice from the chicken is concentrated, and eggs are wisked into it, and drained (this tasted amazing).

Assembly was a challenging. I found, though, that assembling it in my largest spring-form pan helped a lot. The layers of phyllo are confined, and the contents piles up nicely. I also baked it in the pan, turning it over to make upside down then was a breeze.

Note that after step 8, you need to switch to the instructions in the side bar, doing sidebar #1 and #2. Then you return to the regular instructions at step 9. I had to consult a similar recipe in Dorrie Greenspan's "around my french table" to figure it out.

Although this dish took half a day, the end result was beautiful, and enjoyed by all. Taste-wise it deserves a "4", but the poor instructions brought it down to a 3. Happily, I prepared this before my oven broke!