CHICKEN B'STILLA -PASTELAO D FRENCH WAY

Memories created around food are immensely special if they involve ur parents , even if u werent involved in the eating and this is another one that accompanies mommies stories and memories.

 

 And when FFwD had B'stilla lined this week , i knew i simply could not afford to give this one a miss and actually i dont fancy missing any , its a wonderful feel cooking and baking the same recipes every week together.

I always make it a point to return the visit of every one who visits here , but more so when my fellow gang at FFwd does , i hop by straight away to see their goodies and say hullo too.

Now if u havent joined FFwD , do so now , u'll love to cook/bake along +no rules and which ever way ie , please leave ur blogs links below.

As a growing kid ,teenageer and young adult , almost every Goan portuguese or Portuguese wedding my mom went to, had Pastelao , which was met with excitement and an eagerness galore from all going to partake the buffet.

And this from my only dessert eating mom , yeah at weddings ,even we , would get her a dessert plate and all the rest was forgotten , unless its a sit out dinner , then u know otherwise :-)

 "E era bem grandos ,e nao aparecia na uma pouco de galinha entra folhados",added mommy , transalting into "oh they were nice and large and not a bit of filling peeped out the crunchy "flohados" before someone cut into it ofcourse"...

And my addition of boiled potatoes and green peas , is jus aining at that , to relive the memories with mom....and give it a goan portuguese touch.

Oh yeah , did try all those shapes ...

Did add potatoes and g.peas to the mix , i think with cottage cheese or mushrooms or both , with the same recipe , would make a fantastic veggie version of this.

So would broccoli.

Before u begin , sharpen the knife , and well:-)

MArinating the chicken in familiar flavors was easy , ginger and garlic and spice ....

Yeah garlic finely chopped...

oh and all things nice...Whole crushed coriander and ginger powder.yeah i did use ginger powder , fresh would be better...

and again ,cinnamon, coriander spice and all things nice....

And 3 onions ...

Cubed...

 

Everything into a mixing bowl where u will marinate the chicken..

Ofcourse u see the saffron everywhere , used a largee pinch!

A full chicken , halved,that was instead of thighs and i was fine with this.And left aside for an hour till u fix the days lunch of Basamati rice , Okra veggy , marinate fish fillets to fry ,grind a chutney, and then ur back to the chicken , while the days curry simmers there.

Next place chicken broth ,with the marianted chicken in a stock pot (ofcourse if u marinated the chicken in a pot , jus add the broth..right there)

Or water with chicken stock is good too. Half litre.
A good drizzle of Portuguese olive oil , though uncalled for , is v welcome here.

Simmer the chicken , till well soft and done..did half time in a pressure cooker and half time under simmer , till soft and falling apart.

With a large slotted spoon ,transfer the chicken to a plate ,let cool enough to handle. 

 Added some chopped Red pepper here , to the stock,loved the flavor , i think smoky would be better.

 U can chose to strain the broth here , i did not,and save the onions or not , and place broth back on the flame in the same pot or a sauce pan and whisk in the lemon juice ,bringing to a boil ,till reduced to around 1 cup.

Now is the time to lower the heat and add eggs whisked with honey , and cook to thicken , as soon as it does ,on a low heat , take off the heat.

it will be quite thick now , though i used only 1 egg , when the recipe calls for three , only 1 was in the pantry.

 I boiled in some potatoes and green peas ...

Add in the shredded /cubed chicken(do when cool enough to touch) , reserved onions , boiled potatoes , green peas .

Added some caramalised onions too here and garnish with ur fav herb /cilantro or chives.

  And some crushed pepper to taste.

 Now cling wrap and refrigerate the filling till u begin with constructing the pies:-)

Begin with buttering the dishes , yeah i go the hearts and pink/red way :-)u can can go any way but 2 inches is good!

  Begin with buttering , one sheet at a time and keep the remaining covered under a kitchen towel.

I did thaw it outside the refrigerator ,for around 3hours, after an over night sit in the refrigerator from the freezer , but i still had breakages , but well i did do something with the breakages for sure.

U'll see soon what:-)

 Step by step , first a plus sign and then a * to get a * and cover the whole base so that none of the filling seeps out, and it overlaps too , so u fold it over later.

And yeah i did some flaked and toasted almonds on the base of some.

U then need to cut out some sheets to cover the tops,tuck the edges in, dot with butter and Sprinkle with Cinnamon sugar.

See the pretty red pepper ....

Yeah i used it to cut pretty shapes and dotted with some more butter and sprinkled with more cinnamon sugar.

All baked.....

and cut and ready to dig in....

The filling is hearty and perfect for dinner or lunch or brunch....quite filling these are...

RECIPE
original recipe from Dorie here
for stuffing
1 whole chicken
a few cloves garlic ,chopped
a piece of ginger or ginger powder
1.1/4 tbh , whole coriander ,crushed
1tsp cinnamon , freshly grated
a bigg pinch of good saffron
juice of 1 lime
1 egg
chopped cilantro/ parsely
salt and pepper to taste.
MArinating the chicken in familiar flavors was easy , ginger and garlic and spice .....oh and all things nice...and again ,cinnamon, coriander spice and all things nice....
Leave to MArinate for an hour or overnight.
Next place chicken broth ,with the marianted chicken in a stock pot (ofcourse if u marinated the chicken in a pot , jus add the broth..right there)
Simmer the chicken , till well soft and done..around    mins...
With a large slotted spoon ,transfer the chicken to a plate ,let cool enough to handle.
U can chose to strain the broth here and save the onions or not , and place broth back on the flame in the same pot or a sauce pan and whisk in the lemon juice ,bringing to a boil ,till reduced to around 1 cup , takes    mins.
Now is the time to lower the heat and add eggs whisked with honey , and cook to thicken , as soon as it does , add in the shredded /cubed chicken , reserved onions , boiled potatoes , green peas and reserved onion.
Added some caramalised onions too here and garnish with ur fav herb /cilantro or chives.
Make this a day ahead , i did and begin with the pastry next .

PUTTING TOGETHER THE PASTRY

Please thaw as muc as filo sheets as u need , u cant really re freeze them ( i think) coz its the first time i am working with it myself.

U need to butter the filo sheets well , since i love salted butter , i melt a little of salted with more unsalted , for the above quantity , i used more than a stick of butter in all , maybe u sure could use less.

Brush the sheets with butter and the best way is to lay them in the dish/molds using , first to make a cross , and then another diagonally , remember , jus need to cover the base and then the top , so that nothing leaks by.

Sprinkle some flaked almonds ,in the base , if using , fill with the filling and then butter some more sheets and cover.

Dot with butter , sprinkle with cinnamon sugar ,dress with red pepper if u want , and bake in a preheated oven @400 degrees for around 25mins and then @350 degrees another 25 mins , my oven ofcourse took lonnnngg time.

CAPSICUM RELISH

this really goes well with the B'stilla , really really beautifully!
All u do is finely chop some red pepper, cilantro , 3-4 cloves of garlic and basil.
U could add a green chilli for a bite , though it aint really needed.

FOr the Sauce.

Warm some tomato and whisk in butter .
Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil , chilli flakes , basil , mince garlic , sea salt to taste and vinegar/wine.And some good french mustard.
Thats it.
Serve with the relish.

 oh yeah i sure did have lods of broken Filo pastry , so i created a crunchy , cinnamon vanilla sweet bite with it.
Curious, hop here for full recipe (easy and takes jus 5mins to put together) and pics.