B’stilla (or bastilla, bisteeya, pastilla or bstilla) is a succulent Moroccan dish — traditionally, a meat pie made with young pigeons (squabs). I have a recipe here which I have prepared with Cornish game hens before, although it lists chicken as the main meat. However, turkey — and especially brown meat — makes a perfectly lovely substitute.
If you’re using Thanksgiving leftovers, the turkey meat will already be cooked so you can cut cooking time down a bit for the meat filling since the recipe assumes raw poultry.
This recipe includes instructions for mixing your own ras el hanout, which is to Moroccan dishes what curry is to Indian food — omnipresent and ever changing depending on the mix you use. I’m very fond of it and when I make a b’stilla, I always mix extra ras el hanout and save it in an air-tight container for later use in other recipes — soups, eggs, rice, etc.
The recipe offers an option for making lots of little individual pastries wrapped as finger food, but I’m partial to one big pie — and it’s less work to make!
The Reef 
One thought on “Turkey b’stilla”