The three different layers of this savory pie take half a day to prepare, so Mum made it fewer than five times during my whole childhood. But it was always my annoyingly precocious answer whenever an adult would ask what my favorite food was. "Bisteeya," I'd say. "It's Moroccan."
I'm not Moroccan, Mum isn't Moroccan, and our family has no ties there. But an old friend (also not Moroccan) from Washington, DC, had made it for Mum around the time I was born, and gave her the recipe book. I'd never made it myself until this Home Away From Home project — but the moment I heard the prompt, to make something that tastes like home, "Bisteeya" rose up through the murk of long term memory like a magic eight-ball's prophecy.
I called Mum. She texted me photos of her stained, wrinkled cookbook pages. I bought an insane quantity of chicken and began to simmer it in saffron, turmeric, and cinnamon. When I tasted a nibble of it, I started crying. I hadn't experienced that flavor in twenty years. I called her again, weeping, and she just laughed.
My favorite part is the cinnamon sugar snowflake on top, which either my sister or I would cut out of scrap paper. It turned the dish from something merely delicious into something beautifully creative, collaboratively constructed, and playful. Just like our happy family's home.
Ingredients
6 squab pigeons, or 5 pounds chicken breasts and thighs
5 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt
1 cup chopped parsley, mixed with a little chopped fresh green coriander
1 Spanish onion, grated
Pinch of pulverized saffron
¼ tsp turmeric
1 rounded tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 rounded tsp ground ginger
3 cinnamon sticks
1 cup butter
¼ cup salad oil
1 pound whole blanched almonds
Confectioners' sugar
Ground cinnamon
¼ cup lemon juice
10 eggs
½ to ¾ pound phyllo pastry
Method
1) Wash the poultry well. Crush the garlic and make a paste with 2 tablespoons salt. Rub the poultry with the paste, rinse well, and drain. Put in a casserole with herbs, onion, spices, half the butter, a little salt, and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.
2) Heat oil in a skillet and brown the almonds lightly. When cool, crush coarsely. Combine with ½ cup confectioners' sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Set aside.
3) Remove the poultry from the casserole. Reduce the sauce to approximately 1¾ cups by boiling rapidly, uncovered, then add lemon juice. Beat eggs until frothy, pour into simmering sauce and stir continuously until eggs cook and congeal. Strain off extra juice.
4) Remove all bones from the poultry. Shred into 1½-inch pieces. Clarify the remaining butter.
5) Preheat oven to 400°F. Assemble the pie in layers: buttered phyllo, then chicken, then egg mixture, then almond layer, then more phyllo on top. Bake for 30 minutes.
6) Dust the top with powdered sugar through a sieve. Place a paper snowflake on top and re-dust with cinnamon. Very carefully remove the snowflake so the cinnamon pattern isn't smudged. ENJOY!!!
