Pork Pastilla and Crispy Spinach

Pork Pastilla and Crispy Spinach

I love Filo. Working with Filo. Eating Filo. It's versatile and could go with anything - sweet, salty, both. Appetiser, starter, finger food, main course, dessert...

And it turns out well baked in the oven, that is, if you have one that works. Mine doesn't. The minute you turn it on, the circuit jumps and electricity in the whole house is cut off. I'm still waiting for someone to come deal with this problem.

So I have to fry my filo. Not very ideal as the pastry is very delicate and burns easily. But I have a craving for Pastilla and it had to be fulfilled.

Pastilla is usually made with pigeon or chicken meat, but the thought of pigeon makes me sick (with my current pigeon problem) and I'm sick of chicken (having made Butter Chicken and Soto Ayam this week). So here goes the decision to make Pork Pastillas.

Pastilla, from what I know, is orginally Spanish, but soon became a popular North African dish. I've done it in many versions (e.g. a similar recipe is for Moroccan Briouates) and I must say that pork is not bad at all.

So, how to start? There are several ways to do the same thing. A popular one is to use a round pastry tin and make a pie form of the pastilla - baked in the oven, of course. It can be quite fun, alternating a layer of filo pastry, cooked minced spiced meat, diced hard boiled eggs, another layer of filo, almond, sugar and cinnamon paste and then a final layer of filo. You bake it and before serving, sprinkle a generous amount of icing sugar mixed with ground cinnamon on the pastilla. Absolutely delicious.

Since I had to fry mine, I made them in the form of spring rolls.

Makes 12 (measurements are as usual approximative) :

210g Filo Pastry Sheets

Salted or unsalted Butter

250g Minced Pork

3 Hard Boiled Eggs

3 cloves minced Garlic

1 Red Onion (diced)

2 Tsps Ground Ginger

1/2 Tsp Ground Safran

1 Tbsp Ground Coriander Seeds

1 Tbsp Ground Cumin

2 Tsps Ground Cinnamon

A handful of fresh Parsley

Salt and Pepper

50g Diced Peeled Almonds (or ground almonds if you intend to make a paste first)

1 Tbsp Icing Sugar

1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

A few drops of Fleur d'Oranger essence (optional)

Icing Sugar and Ground Cinnamon (for the icing)

You have to decide if you want to cook the filling first or not. Better to do so as filo pastry cooks fast and you risk not having the meat cooked through otherwise. But I hate filling up the filo with soggy meat (have to cool it sufficiently etc), so I used the marinated meat filling raw, microwaved the pastillas for a few minutes before frying them (gently).

Marinate the pork with the onion, garlic, parsley and spices. In a separate bowl, mix the almonds (can also dry roast them lightly first) with the sugar and cinnamon. If you want to, can also make an almond paste (frangipane) using ground almonds, egg yolk etc and water.

Filo pastry rarely can be used in a single layer. Too fragile. So you have to cut rectangular strips, take one, spread melted butter on it, and put another filo strip on top. Then spread some of the meat filling on it, followed by the eggs and then the almonds. Roll up. (Microwave and) Fry. Or better - bake in the oven.

Roll them in the icing sugar-ground cinnamon mixture before serving.

To finish with the unhealthy meal, I made some heart attack-inducing Crispy Spinach (fried in very hot oil) and served it with Pepper and grated Parmesan Cheese. Tasty, but not to be eaten too often. Better to eat the Pastillas with a salad. Maybe Iceberg.