For me, tourtiere is an essential dish at Christmas time. A nice break from turkey, this is the ultimate winter comfort food, with the spicy aroma filling your home with hungry Christmas spirit. The recipe I used is by Cinda Chavich in The Guy Can’t Cook and is also in the companion The Girl Can’t Cook book. Both have an excellent variety of easy, tasty recipes for every occasion, and I would highly recommend to anybody who likes to cook.
This recipe can be a little time consuming if you decide to make the crust from scratch, but is well worth the wait. I used an amazing crust recipe that my friend passed along from a pastry course at George Brown College. Also the original recipe made three pies, but I have adjusted for two (one for my family, and one for my boyfriend who never seems to tire of ground meat).
Bon Appetit!
The Recipe: NB – any changes to the original recipe are in italics
This is a Christmas Eve tradition in The Guy’s house – serve pieces of this meaty pork and beef pie with sweet gherkins, pickled beets, or chutney to balance the richness. Don’t give in to your fear of making pie crust, the recipe works! The pies can be filled and frozen unbaked – just thaw in the refrigerator before you’re ready to bake.
Filling
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup minced celery and celery leaves
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1/3 tsp dried savory
- 1/3 tsp ground sage
- pinch ground cloves
- pinch cinnamon
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 cups hot, boiled potatoes, mashed
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
- pastry for two double-crust pies
- 1 egg yolk, beaten with 2 Tbsp milk
In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the chopped onion, garlic, and celery for 5 minutes or until softened. Crumble the ground pork and beef into the pan and stir until the meat is no longer pink. Drain any excess fat from the pan before adding the savory, sage, cloves, cinnamon, salt, pepper and water. Cover the pan, lower the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir in the mashed potatoes and parsley. Set aside to cool.
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- Tourtiere
Make the pastry, following the instructions on the box of shortening or lard. Chill the pastry for 1 hour before rolling. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. On a floured surface, roll the pastry into four thin rounds and line two 9-inch (23 cm) pie plates. Fill each pie chell with 1/2 of the cooled meat mixture and top with the remaining pastry, sealing and fluting the edges with your fingers to form a ruffled border. Cut small steam vents in the tops of the pies using the tip of a sharp knife. Brush the pies with the egg yolk glaze, and bake for 30-40 minutes (ed. note – I found 35 minutes perfect), until golden brown. Cool for 20 minutes before cutting into wedges to serve. Makes two 9-inch (23-cm) meat pies.
Then serve yourself a giant piece of meat pie with some ketchup on the side, pop in the Sweeney Todd movie, and call it a night!
I SEE HUNGRY PEOPLE 