My Moms French Canadian Tourtière Food

FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIERE

Steps:

• In a large sauté pan or skillet, sauté the beef over medium high heat until no longer pink. Drain off any excess fat, add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, celery salt, pepper, allspice and Worcestershire and sauté until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.
• Add the stock and bring up to a simmer. Use a box grater to grate the potato over the sauté pan and stir it in. Let mixture simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes, until most of liquid is absorbed. Remove the bay leaves and add salt to taste. Remove the pan from the heat and cool to room temperature. This can be prepared a day in advance and chilled.
• Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C). On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disc of the pie dough to just less than ¼-inch thickness and line a 9-inch pie plate. Fill this with the cooled tourtière filling. Roll out the remaining dough to the same thickness, cut a hole in the center (for steam to escape) and place on top of the filling. Trim and then pinch the edges of the crust together and brush with the egg wash. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the pastry is a rich golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing to serve.
• The tourtière can be made up to 2 days in advance and reheated in a 325 °F (160 °C) oven.

MY MOM'S FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIèRE

Steps:

• For the Pastry: Follow the instructions for making the pie pastry from either of the recipe links above. Chill the dough until required.
• For the Tourtière Filling: In a Dutch Oven or large saucepan, place the ground meat, breaking it apart with a large fork.
• Cover the meat with water, or chicken stock or beef stock, just barely above the surface of the meat. Bring the mixture to a boil, then, lower the heat to a simmer. Mash the mixture with a potato masher to separate and blend the meat together.
• Add the onion, garlic clove, chicken bouillon cube, sage, poultry seasoning, garlic salt, pepper and seasoned salt to the mixture. Continue to simmer, uncovered, for 1 ½ hours. (You are essentially braising the meat).
• The moisture will evaporate and become absorbed into the meat mixture during the braising process, creating a savoury meat filling. CHEF TIP: Do not drain all of the fat from the mixture as this is what helps bind the tourtière filling.
• Crush the soda crackers and stir into the meat mixture.
• Taste the meat mixture for seasoning and adjust (tweak) as necessary. It should taste quite savoury. Tweaking ingredients could include, according to your taste: 1 -2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce; a drop or two of lemon juice; a grind or two more of pepper; 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard; 1/2 teaspoon celery salt; additional sage, poultry seasoning and or 1/2 teaspoon summer savoury.
• Let the meat mixture cool completely before filling the pie shells. The mixture should be quite thick. If you are not ready to make the pies; refrigerate the mixture. CHEF TIP: For longer storage, I measure the amount of filling that I will need to fill a shallow pie shell (about 1 lb of filling/500 g) and seal it using a vacuum sealer system.
• Line two 8 inch pie shells with pastry. Divide the tourtière filling between the two pies and spread evenly. Brush the outer edges of the pie crust with water and place the top crust onto the pie and press the edges gently to seal.
• Trim the edges and crimp the edges with a fork like my Mom did or create your own scalloped edge. Cut a few steam vents in the top of the crust. Decorate the pie, if desired.
• Bake in a preheated 425°F oven (400°F if using a Convection oven) for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 375°F (350°F if using a Convection oven) for a further 25 minutes or until the crust is golden.
• To Serve: Cut each 8 " pie into 6 - 8 pieces. Serve the tourtière warm (or cold the next day). Refrigerate any leftovers. Enjoy!

TRADITIONAL FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIERE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• In a large pot, mix the pork, beef, onion, and water. Season with salt, pepper, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and chicken seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 30 minutes.
• Drain liquid from pot into a bowl. Transfer remaining meat mixture to a separate bowl and chill until ready to use. Place bowl with liquid in the refrigerator and chill 1 hour, or until fat has congealed on the surface.
• Scrape and discard fat from the chilled liquid. Spoon the meat mixture into pie crusts. Add 1 tablespoon of reserved liquid to each pie. (This prevents them from becoming to dry.) Place top crust on top of each pie and pinch edges to seal. Cut slits in top crust so steam can escape.
• Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 50 minutes. Serve immediately or freeze until ready to use.

FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIERE I

Steps:

• Combine pork, onion, seasonings and the boiling water.
• Simmer uncovered stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked.
• Cool and skim off any fat.
• Stir in the potatoes.
• Line pie plate with a pie crust.
• Fill with the cooked mixture.
• Cover with second crust.
• Seal the pastry edges & cut vents.
• Bake 10 minutes at 230c then lower temp to 180c for 30 minutes or until golden.

FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIERE

Steps:

• In a saucepan, combine pork, beef, onion, garlic, water, salt, thyme, sage, black pepper and cloves. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils; stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer until meat is cooked, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Spoon the meat mixture into the pie crust. Place top crust on top of pie and pinch edges to seal. Cut slits in top crust so steam can escape. Cover edges of pie with strips of aluminum foil.
• Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes; remove foil and return to oven. Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes before slicing.

MME BENOIT'S TOURTIèRE

Steps:

• Place all ingredients except breadcrumbs and pastry in a saucepan.
• Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 20 minutes.
• Remove from heat and add a 3 or 4 spoonfuls of breadcrumbs.
• Let mixture stand for 10 minutes.
• If the fat is sufficiently absorbed by the breadcrumbs, do not add more. If not, add more crumbs in the same manner.
• Cool mixture and spoon into a pastry-lined pie plate.
• Cover with crust and bake at 400F until golden brown (follow directions for pie crust you chose).
• Serve hot.
• NOTE: Cooked tourtière may be frozen for 4 to 5 months and does not need to be thawed before reheating.
• To reheat, place your frozen tourtiere (covered in foil) in a medium oven and bake until a knife inserted in the center is hot when you pull it out.

FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIERE

Steps:

• Cook all the ingredients together in a pot over medium heat till the meat has lost its pink color but is still moist.
• Cool then put mixture into an uncooked pie shell.
• Top with crust and bake at 425°F for 20- 25 minutes or till crust is golden brown.

ALICE'S FRENCH CANADIAN MEAT PIE - TOURTIERE

Steps:

• Cook meat in a skillet on medium heat until brown, then drain and place meat in a large bowl.
• Add potatoes a little at a time to meat.
• Add seasonings and mix.
• Add more seasonings to taste.
• Place pie dough on 2 pie plates.
• Add half of mixture to each pie.
• Cover each pie with remaining dough.
• Seal the edges of pies and cut 5 to 6 vent holes on the tops of pies.
• Brush top of pies with melted butter.
• Bake 20 - 30 minutes at 350°F or until crusts are golden brown.

MY MOM'S CRETONS (AKA GORTON) AND TOURTIERE

Steps:

• If your meat is too lean, cut up 1/4-1/3 pound Salt Pork, and render into lardons. Remove the salt pork bits, then continue the recipe, omitting the salt. Do not use bacon for the extra fat, bacon is smoked. You can use Lard, 1-2 T, in a pinch.
• Put all ingredients into a large sauce pot, just covering by an inch with the water.
• Mix together.
• Simmer on low, stirring frequently for 3-4 hours.
• Add water as needed to keep moist and from sticking.
• After the allotted cooking time you should have simmered the mixture down till there is about an inch of combined fat and water.
• Taste to check the seasonings. If your spices are old, you may need to re-spice the mixture
• (with the same amounts), then cook out the raw taste a bit.
• Transfer to a bowl to cool, stirring to keep fat suspended in meat.
• Serve warm on toast, or cold for sandwiches.
• For Tourtiere mix the same mixture with 3 0r 4 mashed (dry) potatoes,
• allowing them to suck up the moisture.
• Allow to cool, and ladle into pre-pared pie crusts.
• Egg wash and bake to specifications.

TOURTIERE DU QUEBEC (FRENCH-CANADIAN MEAT PIE)

Steps:

• Place all the ingredients (except for pie shell) in a sauce pan and bring to boil and cook uncovered for 20 minutes over medium heat.
• Cool the meat mixture and pour in pastry lined pan. Note: I like to cool mine in refrigerator over night if time permits.
• Cover with the top crust, cut steam vents and bake in a 400F oven until golden, about 45 minutes.
• Freeze well.
• Note: If ground pork and ground veal cannot be found, you can use meatloaf mix which is all 3 meat but I'm not sure of the ratio.