I’m continuing to honor global Christmas traditions at home, while still staying true to my family’s own. Our stand-by Christmas cookies are still present, but have been paired with hot chocolate, since the weather outside is, while not as frightful as it was a few weeks ago, still deserves warm, chocolatey beverages. This weekend I made a meat pie. Tourtière is a French Canadian version, meat spiced with tastes expected and not, wrapped in a short crust pastry, filling the house with warmth and delicious smells. This dish is traditionally served after midnight mass, and served with a sweet relish or ketchup.
I set to make this because, even though I don’t love pie- Mom does. She really does, and I knew that if I wanted to pass this along to a willing taste tester, I didn’t have to look far.
Plus, it was a good chance to exercise my pastry skills; I’d been hearing about short crust pastry from The Great British Baking Show for weeks and I finally had a reason to try my hand at my own. It wasn’t hard at all, and reaffirms my belief that homemade crusts are always far superior to anything ready made, and don’t take a daunting amount of time or effort.
As for the filling, the traditional tourtière recipes I found used something akin to a meatloaf mix: pork, beef, veal, game…all spiced and made into a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs-and-your-intestines-and-tuck- into-a-cold-winter’s-night dish. And so…I lightened it up a little bit by cutting it down to a mix of lean beef and baby bella mushrooms. I know, I cheated, but the original recipe just seemed so heavy, and I’ve got enough things in this house making me heavy right now…
In any case, it worked and the end result has me rethinking my previous notions about pie, fruit, or otherwise.
I should have known, my previous conceptions about fruit cake were dashed years ago by Sri Lanka, and here is proof again that it pays to experiment, and to keep eating the globe. It really is full of surprises!
I meat it!
Tourtiere
Traditional Tourtiere, a French Canadian spiced meat pie with a flaky pastry crust and lightened up with baby bella mushrooms
Ingredients
- For the crust:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced
- 6 TB ice water
- For the filling:
- 1 TB olive oil
- 1 lb 90% lean ground beef
- 1 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 3/4 cup dry red wine (I used Malbec)
- 8 ounces coarsely chopped baby bella mushrooms
- 1 Yukon gold potato, peeled and diced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp dried sage
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 shakes Tabasco or other hot sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 TB water, mixed with the egg yolk
- Sweet relish or ketchup, to serve
Directions
- Step 1 First, make the crust:
- Step 2 In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. Using a pastry blender or a fork, cut the butter into the flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal. Do not overwork. Alternatively, you can do this with your food processor, pulsing until coarse meal. Stir in enough ice water to make the dough come together.
- Step 3 Divide dough in half, and flatten each half into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Step 4 Make the filling:
- Step 5 While the pastry is chilling, make the filling.
- Step 6 In a deep skillet, add the olive oil and the onion. Cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and the ground beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and cooking until brown. Add the spices, hot sauce, bay leaf and the mushrooms and cook another 5 minutes. Add the diced potato and the wine and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Set aside to cool before filling.
- Step 7 Assemble the pie:
- Step 8 Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Step 9 Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly the size of your pie plate. Fit this crust into a deep-dish pie plate or cast-iron skillet, leaving some dough to hang over. It will be trimmed later. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes at room temperature, which will help prevent it shrinking as it bakes. Using a fork, poke holes all around the dough, and do not miss the sides. This will keep the dough from puffing up on the bottom.
- Step 10 Roll out the second disk of dough to the same size as the first. Place the chilled filling into the pie plate and cover with the remaining dough. Press the edges together with a fork and trim any excess dough. You can use the extra dough to make pretty cut out shapes for decorative purposes. Using a sharp knife, cut three steam vents in the top of the crust. Paint the pie’s top with the egg wash.
- Step 11 Bake until the crust is golden brown, about 40-50 minutes. Let cool about 15 minute before serving with a sweet relish or ketchup.
