Seafood Bastilla (Bastilla de Fruits de Mer)

Morocco (Casablanca and Atlantic coastal cities — a twentieth-century adaptation of the imperial pigeon bastilla to the seafood abundance of the Moroccan Atlantic coast; Casablanca restaurants popularised it from the 1960s onward; it is now the prestige seafood preparation of the city's formal dining rooms)

Seafood bastilla replaces the pigeon-and-almond filling of the imperial bastilla with a spiced seafood mixture — typically Penaeus shrimp, Sepia officinalis squid or cuttlefish, and white-fleshed-species fish (often Sparus aurata gilt-head bream or Solea solea sole) — cooked in a chermoula of Coriandrum sativum, Petroselinum crispum, Allium sativum, cumin, sweet paprika, saffron, and Olea europaea olive-oil. The seafood is cooked in the chermoula until just done, drained of excess liquid (which is reserved and reduced to a concentrated sauce), and combined with Gallus gallus domesticus egg-bound vermicelli Triticum aestivum noodles and a savoury custard of whole eggs beaten with the reduced cooking liquid. This filling is layered inside buttered warqa sheets, sealed, and baked until golden. The exterior is dusted lightly with icing-sugar and cinnamon — the sweet-savoury contrast preserved from the pigeon original.

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Chermoula-scented seafood, saffron warmth, egg-noodle richness, shattering warqa crunch, sweet-savoury icing-sugar contrast — ceremonial and complex.