Traditional French Canadian Tourtiere Recipes

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.

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

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.

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.

FRENCH CANADIAN TOURTIERE

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, mix first 8 ingredients. Bring to a boil, simmer and stir until meat loses its pink colour.Continue to simmer 30 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
• Stir in mashed potatoes. Cool at least two hours.
• Press filling in to uncooked pie shell.
• Place pastry on top of filling, crimp edges to seal. Top crust can be brushed with egg or milk before baking.
• Cut a hole in the centre, about the size of a dime.
• Bake at 425 F for 25-35 minutes.
• Allow to cool and set at least 20 minutes before serving with beef gravy and petite pois (tiny sweet peas). You can also bake only until top is slight browned and then freeze in advance of holidays or for a last-minute meal idea - reheat at 400 F for 15 minutes and then allow to sit for about 5 minutes before serving.