This year I’m hosting one of our three family Christmas dinners on Boxing Day. I expect that by December 26 we’ll have had enough turkey and trimmings, so I figured I’d cook up something a little different this year. I decided tourtiere, a dish traditionally served on Christmas eve in Quebec, would be keeping with the festive season while offering my family something a little different.
The idea was the easy part. I’ve never actually made meat pie or pastry before so I was a little nervous about the execution. A trial run to work out the kinks was definitely in order. I settled on the recipe from the Canadian Living website for both the tourtiere and the pastry.
Preparing the filling was fairly straightforward. While I browned the pork I prepared the vegetables and measured out the seasonings. I was a little trepidacious about adding all 3 onions as the quantity seemed to overpower the other ingredients. Not to worry though, the onions cooked down and everything melded together nicely.
I did not add any “summer savory.” I have no idea what this is and I couldn’t find it in the grocery store so I just skipped it. The cloves and cinnamon give this dish a wonderful flavour but I’ll likely add a little rosemary next time as well.
A picture of the filling cooked and ready to pop in the fridge to chill is on the right.
One great thing about this dish is that both the filling and pastry need time to chill in the fridge. So I prepared everything in the morning and later that afternoon it was very easy to roll out the pastry and assemble the pie. Getting all the time consuming tasks done in the morning makes this a great choice for entertaining since you want to be with your guests, not in the kitchen.
Kathryn - I can bring you some summer savoury next time I come to TO. It's popular out here in the East Coast - kinda like sage if I remember correctly. I'll be making my own tourtiere on Friday (my hubby's grandmother was French Canadian) so I know who to call if I get stuck. I like the idea of making it first thing in the morning and then leaving it.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to more yummy posts!
Oh interesting. Sage would be a nice addition, I might do that instead of the rosemary. I'll let you know how it turns out.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your tourtiere!