Food is a great way to practice English while making something delicious. For me, there are few ways better to experience a culture than by tasting it!

Here is the recipe my friend Catherine shared with me for tourtiere, a classic French-Canadian meat pie usually served around Christmas time, from what I read. I tried it and it is tasty! Another friend told me his family serves it with maple syrup and ketchup, as pictured here. Bon appetit!

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground pork

½ pound lean ground beef

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup water

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground sage

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 large potato, cooked and diced or mashed

Pastry for 1 – 9 inch double crust pie (recipe follows, if you don’t have time store bought pastry is fine)

1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Peel potato, then boil and mash.
3. Simmer the onion, potato, spices, and meats in a large skillet with ½ cup water until it’s quite thick and browned. (1 hour-ish)
4. Grease and lightly flour a 9 inch pie pan. (I like using butter for this) Put prepared pie crust into pan.
5. Spoon meat mixture into prepared pie.
6. Cover pie with top crust and cut some vents with a knife to release the steam. Brush with the beaten egg.
7. Bake for 50 minutes.
8. If it browns too quickly, cover with foil.

Pastry

Catherine says if you have a heavy-duty stand mixer, this is a good recipe. I don’t, and I also like butter, so I am also including my favorite butter based pie crust recipe as an alternative.

Ingredients

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 /12 cups margarine & lard combination (1/2 and ½)

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Method

1. Mix dry ingredients in Kitchen Aid.
2. Add liquid.
3. Form dough into balls.
4. To double, use 1 package lard and 4 squares of margarine.

Butter Pastry

I got this recipe from BBCgoodfood.com from the recipe for a Proper Steak, Ale and Mushroom Pie. (also an awesome recipe if you have the time to make it btw) I love the simplicity of this recipe, and it makes more than enough pastry for a thick crust, which I also like. If you have a favorite recipe please feel free to share it at fluencybridge88@gmail.com.

Ingredients

650g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

250g lard or cold butter (or half of each), diced, plus extra for greasing

1 egg yolk, beaten, to glaze

Method

1. Crumble the flour and lard, or butter, together with a generous pinch of sea salt until completely combined.
2. Add up to 200ml ice-cold water to make a soft dough. This can be done in a food processor if you want.
3. Knead the pastry, then wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hr.
4. The pastry can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept in the fridge or frozen for up to a month.