Tourtiere - Canadian French Meat Pie

[mudbug]

that's cuz my French is tres bad after all these years!

 

[Selket]

You're welcome

You're welcome...I hope you try it, I haven't made this in years and plan to soon.
DG

 

[Claire]

When I was a child, this was made whenever my Roy relatives got together for Christmas. Christmas Eve, my Roy uncles and aunts (known sometimes as weird words such as "mononk ee matant" (of course I now know mon oncle et ma tante) would get together and play musical instruments all evening. Then the children would be put to bed. Along about 1 a.m., bells would be rung and the children awakened (I now know the adults sans one or two, would go to midnight mass). We'd jump up, because it meant Santa just left. We'd open gifts, and musical instruments would be brought out again, and carols would prevail. We'd all eat tourtiere and beets and drink eggnog (OK, OK, the adults were sipping from a communal glass of Canadian).

Many years later I started experimenting with recipes I have for tourtiere (including a French language Quebecoise cookbook, a real challenge to my high school French), and came up with this one (trying to make it lighter than the packed pork pies of my youth):

1 tube Jimmy Dean Sage sausage (because I often find it hard to get good pork ground to order)
1 lb white meat ground turkey

1 rib celery, chopped fine
1/2 to 1 onion (depends on size)

1 T rubbed sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1 clove garlic

Off to the side have:

1 c chicken or turkey broth

1/4 c instant potato flakes

pie crust of your choice (I'm no baker, I leave it to the little dough boy. If you make it yourself, brava, bravo!!)

chop and sautee (sweat, not brown) the celery & onion, then add the meat and garlic. When the meat is almost done, add the herbs. I've seldom felt the need using the above mentioned meats, but if you are using ground pork or fresh sausage from your grocers,at this point you may need to drain off some fat.

gradually add some of the stock, until everything is a little more than moist, then sprinkle on some potato flakes. stir these together adding one and or the other until you get a consistency that holds together but isn't pastey.

TASTE AS YOU GO. I haven't even mentioned salt and pepper, which you should be doing all along; lots of both, to taste (as soon as the pork is cooked, start tasting)

Fill the pie crust with the almost-set meat mixture, and cover with the top crust. Bake until the crust is brown (a half hour or so at 350).

More tourtiere tales to follow!!!!

 

[mudbug]

I am loving this. thanks, Claire!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Here in SSM, MI, my mother made a meat pie for dinner every once in a while. The difference is that she used diced, rather than mashed potato. We also had significant amounts of onion and carrot in there. It was yummy. When I had a full crew in my own house, I used to make meat pie fairly often. It is yummy. We also make the famous Upper Peninsula specialty, pasties.

As Emerald would say (sorry, couldn't resist ) you could wrap good pie crust around a car bumper and it would taste good.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed fo the North

 

[Claire]

Various kinds of meat (actually I should say savory) pies were staples in history, and had already gone out of favor when I was a child (many, many years ago!!!). Pasties are really the same as tourtiere, just in portable form. Do you know the reason for the thick part of the pastry on a pasty? Miners ate them with filthy, coal black hands. A part of the crust was made very thick, and (I assume in relatively good times) was simply thrown away. A handle.

 

[Claire]

Oh, someone is loving the tourtiere tales. Husband and I retired from the military, and tried to be good retirees in florida. We had a big house, a pool, a couple of hot tubs. Everything you are supposed to want in life. In those years (a decade ago), I started reallyworking on Christmas tourtiere. I think I got some brothers-in-law addicted. Then we sold everything we owned, and went on the road. My first priority, and husband agreed, was a holiday season in the desert of southern California, where much of my family lives, and where I remember spending many holidays. As is often the case, family traditions fell by the wayside. We were having a get togeher the day after CHristmas (boxing day for you Brits), and I brought tourtiere. My cousines, aunts, uncles went crazy.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Claire; your stories of family and get togethers warms my heart. I'm a fairly strong guy, lift weights, ride (or use to ride) dirt bikes, scuba dive, downhill ski, have been towed behind a seventy-five mph snowmobile on cursty snow, attached by a twenty foot rope tied to an aluminum flying saucer, and a host of crazy, life threatening activities. I have had a cracked rib from judo, have suffered 2nd degree burns on my entire right shin, and am generally very pain tolerant. Not much brings a tear to my eye. But I'm an absolute succer for happy family tales.

Horror movies have no effect on me. I used to pick nighcrawlers in a nearby cemetary as a kid. I grew up in the woods and have lived in the heart of the big city. But put me in fromt of a well written story where family onflict is resolved by love, and the member grow close and inseperable, and I have a lump the size of a baseball in my throat.

When you can truly enjoy your family, and give them food that is grand, or comfortable, and appreciated, or bring them any other kind of true joy, then you are living life at its best.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Audeo]

But put me in front of a well written story where family onflict is resolved by love, and the members grow close and inseperable, and I have a lump the size of a baseball in my throat.

When you can truly enjoy your family, and give them food that is grand, or comfortable, and appreciated, or bring them any other kind of true joy, then you are living life at its best.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

Truer words have never been written. Thank you, goodweed.

 

[Claire]

As I have for ages, enjoy 'tallking' about food with you! I do have a couple more tourtiere stories.

At the end of our last Hawaii assignment, we were invited to a local Christmas eve luau. Not a commercial affair, the real thing. I originally declined, citing two friends I was cooking for that night. We all went. We went late enough that we missed the slaughter of the pig, but otherwise all was perfect. The various children got up and spontaneously danced hulas. This was about 15 years ago, when I was just starting my quest to make the perfect tourtiere. Pork and Hawaii have a long history, but no one had seen a savory pie before. Once I moved the tourtiere to the right place on the buffet, it was a HUGE hit! I have another great story about this crowd, which I'll fit into something about fried rice. But this was great fun. Tourtiere is a perfect buffet food, a perfect picnic food, and is super for any kind of brunch. In this case the locals went crazy and the pie disappeared. It was one of my favorite Christmas Eves.

 

[Claire]

Is it considered bad manners to just add a post to bring something to the top of the heap? It is now PRIME TOURTIERE time. Anyone out there who does this, are you making it this year? I think we're waiting for New Years to make it this season.

 

[buckytom]

of course it is ok claire. we often call that "bumping" a thread up so that it gets more exposure. sometimes, someone will just post the word "bump" for that exact reason...

 

[Claire]

Thanks, Bucky. I'm still a realative newbie on the internet. This (and before it the TV one) are the only ones I participate in regularly. I tried an old house forum, but it was too hard to use. So I don't know the protocol and various other ins & outs.

 

[buckytom]

don't worry claire, post away and enjoy yourself. we are a relaxed and friendly group, and will help newbies get into the swim of things when we can.

 

[mudbug]

Claire, you can bring this thread up anytime, as far as I'm concerned. Haven't decided when I'm going to make it over the next week or two, but it will definitely arrive on the table!

 

[Lugaru]

My roomate grew up thinking that every one had this for x-mass dinner and he is from Maine. Im really looking foward to him preparing it this year btw.

 

[Selket]

Meat Pie:

Happy Holidays To Everyone...

Well I'm definitely making tourtiere but I'm going to substitute a few things in the pie. Not using any red meat or pork. I will be using ground turkey and gimme lean soy meat. I made up this gimme lean stuff with onions and garlic and it tasted like pork so I'll use that. I'm going to use organic all purpose flour for the crust and have it with some cranberries on the side. I'm serving this for Christmas Eve dinner and on Christmas Day will have the organic duck and trimmings. I can't wait, I just love duck, will serve it with an orange cornbread stuffing and orange flavoured cranberries on the side. Maybe make some hasselback potatoes and a salad too. Of course if there's any tourtiere left we can indulge in that too. Not sure about desert, have to think on that one...maybe we won't have room left for it.

 

[Claire]

You'll notice that my recipe calls for half lean white turkey meat. When I was a kid, the tourtiere was so heavy, and of course the adults who ate it were half-crocked. Not a good combination! Another great ingredient to lighten it up is to chop some mushrooms very, very finely and saute in olive oil, then add the meat. Traditionally, tourtiere was pork, and I'll never give that up in mine. But I'm a huge fan of taking an old tradition and making a new one from it. Turn it into something that works for you. the big tradition I've let go of is that tourtiere was meant to be eaten as a midnight meal -- or at least in the wee hours -- after a night of celebration and love. I think my freinds would think I was insane if I said, OK, we're through drinking for the night, how about some pork pie? Haha! I still haven't found a source for the beets tradition that was absolutely a part of it when I was growing up. No one else has heard of it!!

 

[lyndalou]

I made it for Christmas Eve this year. I used all LEAN ground pork. I made my filling a day ahead, refrigerated it, and removed any fat off the top. It was delicious and not at all heavy.
I tend to go with the traditional recipes for the holiday and my family loves it.

 

[SouthernComfort]

Tourtiere History

Hello to everyone. I was so intrigued by this post that I had to do a little research online and learn more about the history of this dish. I'm the type of fanatic that enjoys having international cuisine dinner parties based on a specific culture, and serving the traditional meal, from soup to nuts!

I've found some interesting references to it and thought I would share them with those who are interested in it.

There are several pages that refer to a pickled beet sidedish, Claire.

So here are the links to the sites that I found interesting. They contain recipes and a basic history. There are many more out there.


http://www.leveillee.net/roots/tourtiere.htm

More history
http://www.quiltersmuse.com/Tourtiere2.htm

Exploring Tourtiere
http://www.ealdormere.sca.org/vestyorvik/tortiere.html

J'aime la Tourtiere 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. - River Island Park, Woonsocket. A classic taste. A Franco tradition. Take part in our Annual Juried Tourtiere contest and see who makes the best in the Valley! Open call to participate. Contact Marilyn Bouchard at (401) 766-7983 for more information. Free Admission. - Rhode Island
http://www.film-festival.org/flickers/cal1999.htm

"I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables...."