Traditional Tourtière & All Butter Pastry

Ahh, this thing was a masterpiece! I was inspired to make tourtière (pronounced tort-ee-AIR) for the first time this year in honour of Canada Day. My family on my paternal grandmother’s side is French Canadian, having arrived in Quebec in the 1690s. French Canadian cooking is the ultimate comfort food, I think—Quebec winters are bloody cold and it seems that even summer doesn’t last very long. Traditional dishes like split pea soup, maple syrup pie, tourtière, sugar pie, butter tarts, and all manner of other pastries and stick-to-your-bones baked goods and meats are actually pretty easy to cook, and I have plans on attempting a few other newer French Canadian treats too—croissants and bagels. Mm.

At its heart though, tourtière is a simple mince meat (usually pork) pie with some unique spicing; cinnamon and cloves. I grew up thinking this combination was absolutely normal, since that’s how dad always made hamburgers—turns out it’s a throwback to his Montreal upbringing.

The Australians to whom I served this thought it was fantastic, so I guess it goes to show that a delicious meat pie is going to be appreciated in any culture.

Also take note that I’ve used a new recipe for pastry—an all-butter one from Smitten Kitchen. I do quite love my basic pastry recipe, but it requires a few more ingredients and requires a careful hand. This all-butter pastry is very quick, ever-so-flaky, and hard to screw up! (And got compliments from boys who could care less about these things. Just sayin’.)

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Edited: July 10th, 2011

Nanaimo Bars Extraordinaire

Nanaimo bars are a true Canadian delicacy. Smooth chocolate, simple vanilla, and a coconut walnut base make for a dessert that is completely sinful—but too good to turn down! Nanaimo bars originated in Western Canada, and can now be found across the country in cold winter months when that little bit of chocolate is simply necessary to keep warm. (Or at least that’s what we Canadians keep telling ourselves!) They’re also now making a debut in Australia, via my kitchen.

This final Nanaimo bar recipe and method has been a labour of love—I believe it took about three batches of bars, plus some failed elements within those batches, for me to assemble this final version which I can stamp with the “tried, tested, and true” label. It was a journey and a half—the first batch I decided not to use the vanilla custard powder (my thoughts being, “Who needs all those damn expensive and one-purpose ingredients in their cupboard, mumble mumble”), and it flopped, completely. Lesson 1: use the vanilla custard powder. Lesson 2 had to do with proportions and not just taking online recipes for their word at needing roughly 6 cups of ingredients for the base and only 2 cups of icing sugar for the filling, which resulted in a last-minute trans-Pacific phone call to mum and dad for the real recipe & proper proportions. Lesson 3 had to do with finesse—aka, Nanaimo bars are picky little bastards. The various steps require the correct temperatures otherwise they’ll backfire completely—this lesson could be subtitled, “How not to screw up your chocolate topping.”

So, my thanks go to the future in-laws and the folks at Downstream Marketing for eating my somewhat suspect batches of Nanaimo bars before the recipe was perfected. I’m sure it was quite the effort!

Wondering where the Three Cheeses has been recently? You’ve probably noticed I’ve been a bit slow on posting—this is due to a visit from the parents, an engagement (yes, mine!), quickly followed by an unexpected trip back to Canada for a funeral. But I’m back baby, and with new kitchen gear to boot. (Thanks mum and dad!)

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Edited: November 22nd, 2010

Ginger Snap Cookies

Ahh… here in “sunny” Australia, things aren’t as balmy as they usually are. Winter is upon us, and while the days are starting to get longer, it’s still pretty chilly. Since Christmas falls during the middle of summer in Australia, I had basically no motivation to want to cook the rich, delicious foods associated with the holidays. Now that it’s cooled off, though, I’m craving hot tea and cookies and pie and a good roast turkey. The solution? Christmas in July! Not only are we having a dinner party this weekend to celebrate, but I’ve noticed a small uprising of fellow Christmas in July supporters… ‘Winterland’ markets and ice skating at our local venue (guess what I’m doing on the weekend too!), and festively decorated store windows. It’s subtle, but it’s there, and it feels surprisingly awesome to get into the Christmas spirit in July.

These ginger snap gems are a family recipe in the way that my mum’s been making them since I was a kid. So simple and sweet! There’ll be a few different Christmas-themed recipes up over the next few days, but why not start with these cookies to bring a little bit of holiday cheer to your tummy.

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Edited: July 21st, 2010