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
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Peel potato, then boil and mash.
- 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)
- Grease and lightly flour a 9 inch pie pan. (I like using butter for this) Put prepared pie crust into pan.
- Spoon meat mixture into prepared pie.
- Cover pie with top crust and cut some vents with a knife to release the steam. Brush with the beaten egg.
- Bake for 50 minutes.
- 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
- Mix dry ingredients in Kitchen Aid.
- Add liquid.
- Form dough into balls.
- 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
- Crumble the flour and lard, or butter, together with a generous pinch of sea salt until completely combined.
- Add up to 200ml ice-cold water to make a soft dough. This can be done in a food processor if you want.
- Knead the pastry, then wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hr.
- The pastry can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept in the fridge or frozen for up to a month.