Following on from the ras el hanout recipe last week and  looking at the wonderful range of wild ingredients ripe for the foraging this weekend I was inspired to make a wild version of another Moroccan classic.

The result was this filo pastry ‘cigar’  filled with acorns, cobnuts, feta, elderberries and blackberries. A take on the savoury sweet pastilla Rose and I have enjoyed on trips to North Africa in the past few years.

We hope you enjoy it, our guests this weekend on the Vegetarian wildfood weekend loved it. Photos and menu below.

Acorn Pastilla makes 12

• 200g processed  (see below) Acorns
• 200g  Shelled Cobnuts broken into small pieces
• 200g Feta Cheese
• 1 x Red onion very finely chopped.
• 60 x Elder berries
• 20 x Blackberries chopped
• 1 x egg beaten
• Filo Pastry (we used shop bought Jus rol brand and used 2 packs)

To process your acorns, peel off the outer skin and then split the nut inside into two. Place the nuts in a pan with plenty of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes then replace the water and repeat. After the second simmer, drain the acorns and break them up into small pieces. Do not use raw acorns, you must process  them this way.

Put a little oil into a frying pan over a medium high heat and fry your chopped onion until slightly caramelised then remove from the pan into a mixing bowl. Add the rest of the filling ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste but be careful with the salt as the cheese is quite salty.

Open up your pastry sheets. Ours were oblong and about 25cm by 50cm and we cut them down into 2 piles of sheets 25cm by 25cm.

Take one sheet of filo and place one twelfth of the filling in a 10 cm  line across the bottom edge of the sheet in the centre, start to roll up the cigar then stop and fold in the edges, when the edges are folded in continue to roll until you have nearly finished rolling, brush the last bit of pastry with a little of the beaten egg and then roll up completely to seal.

Place this filled cigar shape on another pastry sheet and repeat the rolling process so you have two layers of pastry per roll.

Deep fry the parcels at 180 degrees C until light brown and crisp, drain well on kitchen roll and serve warm.

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September 2013

Vegetarian Wild food weekend

Menu plans
Friday night dinner

Dal bhat tarkari

Saturday  lunch

Pumpkin and Hogweed seed soup.
Wild marjoram fougasse

Saturday night dinner

Vegetable tagine with wild spice Ras el hanout
Sorrel couscous
Acorn pastilla
Hogweed lassi

Sunday  lunch

Mugwort and wild mushroom Ravioli
Orache butter sauce.
Dandelion and Burdock