How très Canadian
[attach]3887[/attach]Can you name a typically Canadian dish? Because of our immigrant history, it might be anything from roast beef to chow mein! After all, from 1788, when the first Chinese workers came to Canada, every small Canadian town had its local Chinese restaurant and chow mein was as ubiquitous as burgers.
But there is one dish that is distinctly Canadian and it’s found nowhere else.
Tourtière is a French Canadian pie of ground meat encased in a rich pastry crust. It dates to the earliest French settlers and uses some or all of the four spices — cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice —in common use in France at the time.
In a true Quebec tourtière, the hint of some of these spices lurks in the background, giving the dish a unique flavour compared to other meat pies. It should be noted, however, that there are as many recipes for tourtière as there are French cooks making it.
In Saguenay-Lac St. Jean, the dish takes on a whole different aspect. Here the meat, which often includes game meat, isn’t ground but chopped, and the dish may contain potatoes. It is generally made as a vast, deep pie, able to serve a dozen people. In fact, Quebecois distinguish between tourtière and tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean.
There is considerable evidence that early settlers used passenger pigeons to make tourtière. These rather stupid birds were easily trapped simply by tossing some food on the grass and throwing a net over them. Unfortunately, they are now extinct, so we will never know how that particular form of tourtière tasted. These days, the meat is generally pork or a blend of pork and beef or veal.
Traditionally served at Christmas or at New Year, tourtière is now served almost anytime. Indeed, the French Canadian dish of today is rich, meaty and robust; it makes an ideal winter dinner.
[attach]3888[/attach]Tourtière
My original recipe came from the Canadiana Cookbook of the quintessential Québécoise chef, Jehane Benoit. But I have doctored it slightly, using other Quebec sources. I think you’ll like the result.
1 lb ground pork/beef combination
1 small onion, chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
A grating of fresh nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup oatmeal
Pastry dough of your choice
Place all the ingredients except the oatmeal and pastry in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 20 minutes over medium heat.
Remove from heat and add a few spoonfuls of oatmeal. Let stand for 10 minutes. If the fat is sufficiently absorbed by the oatmeal, do not add more. If not, continue in the same manner.
Cool and pour into a pastry-lined pie pan. Cover with top crust. Bake at 400 F until golden brown. Serve hot. A cooked tourtière can be frozen 4–5 months. It does not have to be thawed out before reheating.
Pastry
Use your favourite pastry recipe, but with gluten intolerance a major issue these days I thought I would offer a gluten-free alternative for making pastry.
The tourtière in the photo was made with this gluten-free flour mix. But using gluten-free flour means the consistency of the dough is wetter. So chill it for 20 minutes and roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper. When ready, roll it onto the rolling pin, then unroll it onto the pie plate.
Multi-blend gluten-free flour
3 cups brown rice flour (requires refrigeration)
1/4 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
2/3 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/3 cup cornstarch or potato starch