French-Canadian Meat Pie for Christmas!

In many homes, meat recipes are the answer to a healthy dinner.  A tourtiére is a wonderful thing and definitely should be on your list! Quebecois meat pie, Tourtiere is a classic Canadian Christmas recipe. Originally a tourtiére was a HUGE meat pie baked in the deep dish for which it is named.

Tourtiére Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 cup cold water
• ½ cup finely chopped onion
• ¼ cup finely chopped celery
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
• ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats or grated boiled potato
• Pastry for one double-crust, 9-inch pie
• 1 egg, beaten, for glaze

Instructions

1. In a large, heavy frying pan, combine pork with cold water and heat to
2. boiling point. It should be slightly soupy. Add onion, celery, pepper, bay leaf, savory, rosemary, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice. Cook, covered, over medium-low heat for 1¼ hours; stir often. Add more water if mixture dries out.
3. Halfway through cooking time, season with salt.
4. Stir in rolled oats and cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove bay leaf
5. and allow to cool. Setting the entire pot in the snow bank speeds up this
6. process!
7. Meanwhile, line a standard 9-inch pie plate with pastry (or 2 mini-pie tins). When meat mixture is lukewarm, spread it into tins.
8. Brush around outer edge of pastry with the beaten egg. Place top crust
9. on the tart and press gently around the edge to seal. Trim pastry, crimp edges
10. and cut steam vents in top crust. Decorate as desired.
11. Bake in preheated 425°F oven for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375°F
12. and bake another 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden.

Notes

To freeze unbaked pies:

Pies can be frozen directly after assembly, with the dough still raw. Wrap them well in plastic wrap and freeze.

To cook:

Remove pie from the freezer and unwrap.

Brush the top with a little beaten egg and place frozen meat pie in a preheated

375°F oven.

Bake until golden and heated through, about 50 minutes.

Pies can also be baked and cooled, then wrapped and frozen. This is convenient when you really need an instant supper fix.

To reheat cooked, frozen pies:

Remove meat pie from the freezer a few hours before serving, if possible.

Wrap in foil to keep it moist and warm in a low (300°F) oven until heated through.

Recipe from hilahcooking.com