Tourtiere

[CWS4322]

I'll get my DH's recipe for the green tomato relish and see if a friend who is still in touch with the ex-BG of mine from Quebec can get his mom's recipes...he won't share them with me, but he might with her.

 

[taxlady]

...

I, too, would like to see a recipe for home-made catsup. Ketchup. Whatever!

I posted my recipe. I put the link further up the page. Here it is again: http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f83/tasty-tomato-catsup-70303.html#post970628

The first time I made it, I made 1/8 of the recipe and got a bit more than two 250 ml (~ 1 cup) jars.

 

[Claire]

A tourtiere story is always good. I called to renew some library books. The librarian who answered said, "Oh, Claire! Yes! I've been wanting to talk to you! You told me about a dish called something like ... " (and she proceeded to come out with a few words which totally puzzled me). To be honest with you, I only think of tourtiere in the holiday months. So as she tried to get her mouth around it, she said she's met me at another librarian's New Years Day brunch. Again, see little blanks in my eyes. Then I got it and lit up. TOURTIERE! YES! She told me that after I described it to her (I might have even brought it to the party; one reason it wasn't registering is that the party was at least two years ago). She said she'd made it several times and was thrilled with the results. Perfect brunch buffet food!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

A tourtiere story is always good. I called to renew some library books. The librarian who answered said, "Oh, Claire! Yes! I've been wanting to talk to you! You told me about a dish called something like ... " (and she proceeded to come out with a few words which totally puzzled me). To be honest with you, I only think of tourtiere in the holiday months. So as she tried to get her mouth around it, she said she's met me at another librarian's New Years Day brunch. Again, see little blanks in my eyes. Then I got it and lit up. TOURTIERE! YES! She told me that after I described it to her (I might have even brought it to the party; one reason it wasn't registering is that the party was at least two years ago). She said she'd made it several times and was thrilled with the results. Perfect brunch buffet food!

That's cool that she remembered. And she mentioned it to you! The impact we have on each other's lives!

 

[Mad Cook]

This is a recipe from a friend of mine, its a keeper.

1 pound of ground pork per pie (or 1/2 lb pork and 1/2 lb of ground beef)
1/4 of an onion
1 tsp of sage
1/2 tsp of poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste (dash of celery salt if you like)
Mix and cook till meat turns brown,
If excess juice, then pour it out but you do want some juice otherwise the pie will be dry/tough.
Put browned meat mixture into the pie shell,
put top crust on and bake till golden brown.

If the sage is really strong, then cut back on the amount, otherwise taste test to be sure.

Edit: I also use a LOT more onion. I do the whole onion myself, but I thought I'd put in the recipe as it was given to me, not my edited version!

My grandmother used to make this. She jokingly called it "tortoise pie" after one of my uncles' baby name for it. I never knew where she got the recipe but just before the Great War my grandfather went to Canada for 6 months with some shire horses and could very well have brought the recipe back with him. She added halved raw tomatoes when assembling the pie for baking.

 

[Mad Cook]

It is killing me that I cannot remember what my mom's family called green tomato relish, but it wasn't chow chow, that's what they called it in the south U.S. Oh! There, the little green cells kicked in. Picalilliy (heaven knows how it is spelled). Mom says my pepere Daneault made it. I don't remember eating it with tourtiere; I'll have to ask her. I DO remember making it one year before Gram died and I thought we'd die crying because the onions were particularly strong.

Beets were (and in my house, are) always eaten with the tourtiere. I think probably simply because it is a vegetable that would last through the winter, and that's when we traditionally ate tourtiere. My Quebecoise cookbook has about a dozen recipes for tourtiere.

I, too, would like to see a recipe for home-made catsup. Ketchup. Whatever!

Interesting. Over here piccalilli is mixed veg (usually marrow or courgettes, cauliflower, green beans, red pepper, onions, etc.,) in a mustard, sugar and vinegar dressing/sauce. Keeps well and is good with cheese, cold beef, etc., or, as a friend insists, just on bread and butter. My mother made it from her mother's recipe and I carry on the tradition.

 

[GotGarlic]

Interesting. Over here piccalilli is mixed veg (usually marrow or courgettes, cauliflower, green beans, red pepper, onions, etc.,) in a mustard, sugar and vinegar dressing/sauce. Keeps well and is good with cheese, cold beef, etc., or, as a friend insists, just on bread and butter. My mother made it from her mother's recipe and I carry on the tradition.

I had to look up marrow since I only associate it with bone Apparently it's a type of squash. I checked Google images and lots of pix came up - some were like zucchini (aka courgette), some rounder like Hubbard squash. Which type do you use, MC?

 

[taxlady]

Vegetable marrow is used pickled as a garnish on sandwiches in Denmark, or as a side dish. The Danish ones are similar to zucchini, but bigger, fatter, and white skinned. They are similar in taste to watermelon rind.

 

[taxlady]

Interesting. Over here piccalilli is mixed veg (usually marrow or courgettes, cauliflower, green beans, red pepper, onions, etc.,) in a mustard, sugar and vinegar dressing/sauce. Keeps well and is good with cheese, cold beef, etc., or, as a friend insists, just on bread and butter. My mother made it from her mother's recipe and I carry on the tradition.

That's what I think of as piccalilli too. Sometimes my MIL makes it and gives us some.

 

[Mad Cook]

I had to look up marrow since I only associate it with bone Apparently it's a type of squash. I checked Google images and lots of pix came up - some were like zucchini (aka courgette), some rounder like Hubbard squash. Which type do you use, MC?

Yes, basically if you grow courgettes/zucchini and let them get away from you, you end up with vegetable marrows. As a vegetable, marrows aren't inspiring as they are very watery and go soggy when cooked if you aren't very careful. At one time every local village produce show had a competition to see who could grow the biggest marrow and sometimes the competitors got very heated about it and sabotaged each other's marrows! You can make it into marrow and ginger jam or marrow and ginger chutney if times are bad and you can't afford anything better but I wouldn't recommend it although in "our" piccalilli it does rather well.

Mainly we get the long green zucchini in shops but occasionally see yellow ones but seed catalogues feature different types such as an egg-shaped one. Sadly we only rarely get the tiny baby ones which taste so good in the shops.

Marrows sold in shops tend to be the dark and pale green striped ones although as a child I can remember seeing yellow ones.

We sometimes see other squashes in the green grocery shop - patty pans and similar and all sorts of small knobbly green or orange ones but there are rarely enough of them to do anything much with them and seem to be on the counter as a novelty.

Oh, and I forgot. There is the old recipe for marrow rum. You cut the stalk end off a large marrow, remove the seeds and fill the cavity with brown sugar. You put the end back on and spear it in place to secure it, hang it in a cool place and wait. When the sugar has dissolved and the sugar and marrow juice have combined and the marrow looks ready to collapse, take it down and bottle the resulting liquid and drink. Or throw it away. Mum did it once in her early wine making days and it was disgusting. (If you really must experiment there are various recipes on the net - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall mentions it.)

 

[Claire]

I'm glad someone brought this up again. It is the tourtiere time of the year! Pepere Daneault made his picallili with green tomatoes.