Duck Pastilla

Cook Time 1 hour

Servings 6

Ingredients

4 roasted or confit duck legs (buy ready-made or prepare your own), cooled, skin and bones discarded, then meat shredded

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, + ¼ cup (60ml) extra, to brush

2 red onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

80g dried apricots, roughly chopped

60g dried figs, roughly chopped

1 ½ - 2 tbsp baharat spice*

1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted

1 ½ cups (375ml) chicken stock

⅓ cup pine nuts, reserving 1 tbsp to garnish

½ cup frozen peas, thawed

½ lemon, zest

5-6 large sheets fillo pastry

Baharat is a Middle Eastern spice mixture (it is the Arabic word for ‘spices’) available at selected greengrocers and specialty delis. It is usually made up of pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom.

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Heat extra virgin olive oil in a large non-stick saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in apricots, figs, baharat and fennel seeds and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in stock, reduce heat to medium, and cook until most of the liquid is reduced (6-8 minutes). Turn off the heat and add peas and lemon zest, season and add shredded duck and pine nuts, then stir to combine. Set aside to cool for 20 minutes.

Brush base and sides of a 20cm round springform cake tin with oil. Brush a fillo sheet with oil and press into the tin, oil side up, lining the base and sides, allowing excess pastry to come up the sides. Repeat the process with the remaining fillo.

Spoon the duck mixture evenly into the tin. Cover the mixture with the overhanging fillo sheets, scrunching and sealing the edges of the pastry around the sides. Brush top with extra oil, place on baking tray in oven and a sprinkling of a little extra baharat spice, and cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden and crisp. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool before carefully removing pastilla from tin. Sprinkle pastilla with extra pine nuts.