Sunday Brunch: Tourtière Recipe

Sydney Oland
Sunday Brunch: Tourti\u00e8re Recipe

[Photograph: Sydney Oland]

Everyone who has spent time in or around Quebec will know this traditionalQuebecois meat pie.Every French Canadian family will insist that their recipe is the true original, not unlike gumbo in Louisiana or schnitzel in Austria.

Tourtière is traditionally served around the holidays, but this hearty pie makes an appearance a few times every winter at my house. The meat inside varies from cook to cook and can be a combination of pork, beef and veal. And any good tourtière will be highly seasoned with spices like nutmeg, allspice, black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon—if not necessarily all at once. Tourtière is best when allowed to come down to room temperature slowly once it's taken out of the oven; I suggest a few hours skating or snowshoeing to pass the time. Serve with a green salad and a La Fin Du Monde, or any full-bodied beer.

  • Yield:4-6
  • Active time:30 minutes
  • Total time:90 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe for double crusted pie dough, divided into to discs (like Kenji'sCook's Illustrated Foolproof Pie Dough)
  • 1 large baking potato
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1.5 pounds ground pork
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • dash ground mustard
  • 1 egg

Directions

  1. 1.

    Bake potato in a 400 °F oven until fully cooked, about an hour. Allow to cool, once it is cool enough to handle remove skin and mash in large bowl. Lower oven to 350 °F.

  2. 2.

    Melt butter in large skillet over medium high heat and add onion. Cook until onions are golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add ground pork, water, potato, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, allspice and ground mustard. Cook while mashing with wooden spoon until meat is fully cook and mixture has taken on dry consistency, making sure that potato is fully incorporated into mixture. Remove from skillet to large bowl and allow to cool completely.

  3. 3.

    Roll 1 dough disc to fit bottom of 9-inch pie pan. Fill with cool meat filling, smoothing top of filling. Brush edges of filled pie dough with egg wash, roll out second crust and fit on top. Trim edges of dough and gently seal with fingers. Cut vent in top, then brush with egg wash.

  4. 4.

    Bake for 50 minutes, if top crust begins to brown too much cover with foil. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.