Holiday Recipe: Tourtière

NOUN Tourtière (noun); Tourtières (plural noun): a kind of meat pie traditionally eaten at Christmas in Canada.

Growing up in Northern BC, it is a melting pot of everything wonderful about Canada. My father, who was German, and mother who was French Canadian had very interesting customs that we adopted and still practice. Christmas Eve has always been a night of appys (mostly seafood, breaded fresh oysters, scallops, shrimp cocktail) along with Tourtière. An odd combination, but one I look forward to… and it’s quite okay to use ketchup!!

Filling

• 3 lbs ground pork
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp Grated Onion
• 3 Minced Garlic 
• 1 tsp Thyme 
• 1 tsp Salt 
• 1 tsp Sage 
• 1 tsp Dry Mustard

Directions

Sauté ground meat and onions until done, add all spices and 1 cup of water and simmer until water has evaporated and spices are mixed well into the meat. It should be very aromatic at this point. Approximately 1 hour on low. Cool completely.

Pastry

(Shhh…. I have used bought pastry too, but Momma never did – Here is her never-fail recipe)

•  5 cups flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 Tbsp white sugar 
• 1 lb shortening, chilled 
• 1 egg 
• 1 Tbsp vinegar 
• Ice cold water

Directions

1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in the Tenderflake.
2. Mix the egg in a one cup measuring cup. Add the vinegar and fill with the ice water to 1 cup.
3. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture and incorporate into a ball — trying to handle the dough as little as possible.
4. Chill for 1 to 2 hours in a fridge.
5. Assemble: When both pastry and meat mixture have been chilled well. Roll out 2 bottom and 2 full tops of pastry and place in a 9-10 inch pie pan. The deeper the pan, the more filling. Beat one egg lightly and use a pastry brush to top the fully made pie. Make a few cuts to ensure the steam can be released during cooking.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 375F for 45-50 minutes. Freezes well.