Homemade Tourtière

Every year we have tourtière for Christmas Eve dinner.  It is a traditional French Canadian meat pie, and although we aren't French Canadian we have it anyway since we don't really have any traditional food for Christmas Eve.  It also helps that our whole family thinks tourtière is delicious.


Recently I got together with my friend Kim to make tourtière for the first time.  Now given that we have tourtière every year for Christmas Eve dinner you might think I already knew how to make it - not so!  In the past I have always bought tourtière from the grocery store, but I decided this year to try my hand at it and asked Kim if I could join her when she was making hers.  

Kim likes to wear a Hanukkah apron when she cooks Christmas tourtière, being the rebel she is!

Kim's mother was introduced to tourtière when they lived in Labrador back in the 1950s (you can see her blue recipe card in the photo below on the right).  Kim combines her Mother's recipe with another one that she got from a magazine years ago.  

Tourtière is a double-crusted meat pie usually made with ground pork, but may also include ground veal or even beef.  Traditional recipes include onions, seasonings, and mashed potatoes, although recipes vary from region to region and family to family.  

Kim was making a lot of tourtière as she needed it for their Christmas Eve dinner as well as mini tourtière tarts for a Christmas party.  To be uber-efficient we divided up the work and I did the peeling and chopping while Kim did the cooking and adding seasoning and mashing of potatoes.  We were a good team and got the tourtière filling ready in jig time.

Here's the recipe we used for a 9-inch double crust tourtière:

Ingredients:
1 medium potato, cooked and mashed
1 lb ground lean pork (0.45 kg)
½ cup boiling water
1 medium onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp dried thyme
½  - 1 tsp dried sage
¼ tsp dry mustard
-------------------
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
dash of garlic salt (optional)
1/2 each red and green bell pepper

Method:

1.  Combine pork, water, onion, garlic, and seasonings (down to the dashed line) in a saucepan and simmer for 25 minutes or until liquid is reduced stirring occasionally.  Can also be made with half pork and half veal.

2.  Remove from heat and if necessary pour off water but keep moist. Stir in potato, mashing to make sure the mixture is well combined.

3.  Add all the seasonings listed below the dashed line and mash again.

4.  Chill thoroughly.  Mash a few mores time.

5.  If desired add chopped red and green peppers to give a festive appearance. 

6.  Fill pastry-lined pie pan with chilled meat mixture, then place top crust over filling.  Use a knife to make air holes to allow the steam to escape.

7.  The tourtière can be wrapped well and frozen at this point (allow to thaw before baking).

8.  Bake at 450 for 10 minutes; reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for another 45 minutes until the crust is golden (I'm not exactly sure how long it will take so I will let you know after I've baked mine) 

9.  Let rest for 5 minutes to facilitate perfect slices.   Serve hot.

Since we were making large quantities we had to put the pot outside to cool the filling down as there wasn't room in the refrigerator.  Kim told me that they always put the pot in snow to cool the filling down.  Given our mixed weather here in Toronto I was surprised that they almost always manage to find at least a little bit of snow to use.  Not this year, though, as we have had a VERY warm fall - so we just put the pot outside on a post and went out every few minutes to stir it so it would cool down.

I look like I know what I'm doing,

but I really don't.  I was flying by the seat of my pants.

And couldn't believe it turned out looking like a real Christmas tourtière.  It's all wrapped up and safely in our freezer waiting for Christmas Eve.

Do you think cooking with such a gorgeous combination of pots helped make the tourtière taste better.   I'll let you know after I eat it.

What do you serve for Christmas Eve dinner?  I'm always curious because it seems to vary much more than the traditional Christmas Dinner menu.