Gluten Free B’stilla

This recipe was inspired by making a traditional Moroccan Jewish B’Stilla recipe for Sukkot.

Before my Celiac Disease diagnosis, I loved the phyllo dough and savory meat dish from the International Jewish Cookbook by Evelyn Rose.  This year I tried to duplicate it with great success.  I know I will never get GF phyllo dough to have the same texture, but this came close. 

Day 1: Make the rough dough.  Using the Rough Puff Pastry recipe from Gluten Free Girl, substitute Margarine or Parve Shortening for Butter.  Refrigerate overnight.

Ingredients:

• 1 large 4ish pound chicken
• 1 large onion
• salt
• black pepper
• 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 20 fluid ounces of stock from the chicken
• 7 eggs
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 2/3 cup margarine
• 1-2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Day 2:  Wash the bird, quarter and simmer the bird with Giblets in 20 oz water with onion seasonings and parsley for 1 hour until the bird is absolutely tender (cover the pot with foil to ensure you keep the steam in).   You can use a much smaller bird and augment with chicken breasts.  When cooked drain off the stock and reserve.  Skin and bone the chicken and cut the meat into bite size pieces.

Take 8 ounces of stock (after it’s cooled sufficiently) and blend it with eggs in a food processor or blender.  Pour the mixture into a small pan and stir over LOW heat CONSTANTLY until the mixture thickens and become creamy.  DO NOT BOIL!  The savory custard and the meat become the filling.  Allow to cool.

Dry fry the almonds until golden brown (or 2 minutes on high power in the microwave)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Use a Lasagna size baking pan for the B’Stilla.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide it into 3 parts.  Set aside 1 part and put the remaining parts back into the refrigerator. Place a layer of saran wrap on the counter place the dough and put a parchment paper on top.  With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into the size of the pan.  Remove the parchment paper.

Brush the bottom of the lasagna pan with a layer of melted margarine.  Carefully invert the dough into the pan removing the saran wrap.  Brush the top of the dough with more melted margarine.  Sprinkle the top with sugar, cinnamon and almonds.  Spread 1/2 of the cooled egg mixture over this and about 2-3 oz of the chicken stock.  Roll out another layer of the dough and place it on top.  Brush the top with more margarine and lay the meat out in this layer, adding the remaining egg custard and 2-3 more ounces of chicken stock.  Roll out the last layer and place it on top, trying to seal the top if you can.  Paint the remaining top with Margarine, and sprinkle a little sugar an cinnamon on the top.    If you can’t seal the top add 2-3 ounces of chicken stock.

Place it in the oven for 60 minutes, then raise the temp to 400°F for 15 minutes.  Gluten free dough will not brown like regular dough.  Take it out; it’s done.