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

French Canadian Maple Syrup Pie

I’m going to make a bold claim here: I think that maple syrup is as good as chocolate. (Gasp! Shock! Horror! Disbelief!) And much like chocolate, it’s really only worth having if it’s the good stuff. My grandmother’s family on my dad’s side has been in Canada since the 1690s, meaning that they were some of the first French settlers in Canada. Three hundred years is more than enough time to develop a unique cuisine, and the French Canadians really know their maple syrup, pies, and other tummy-warming dishes for cold nights (just you wait for my dad’s split pea soup!).

I’m not entirely sure where this recipe came from, but my dad’s scribbled note at the bottom of it says, “This resembles what my grandmother Latour made often.” And this woman… I never met my great grandmother Latour, but I’ve heard the stories of their large Catholic family gatherings on holidays, and my dad’s recollection of the sheer number of pies has me reeling. Maple, pumpkin, chocolate, apple, cherry, so on and so forth—if I ever end up being half the cook that woman was, nay, a quarter, I’ll count myself proud.

So here you go. One authentic, French Canadian maple syrup pie. I’ve included a link for some well-priced maple syrup at the bottom of the post for you Canadians or Americans. The irony is that (good) maple syrup is the same price and the same brands in Australia as what you can get in western Canada.

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Edited: August 9th, 2010

Blueberry Pie

Growing up, blueberry pie was one of the treats in my house: other than chocolate paté, how much better could it get? My mum loves berry picking in the summer, and growing up in the mountains leads to some amazing wild blueberry, huckleberry, and sometimes even strawberry or raspberry picking. Wild berries are much smaller than domesticated versions (none of this half-grape sized blueberry business), and have a lot more bang for your buck when it comes to taste. If you can’t pick your own wild berries, this pie still tastes great with domestic berries. Try a blueberry-huckleberry blend for something a bit different.

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Edited: January 14th, 2010

Pretty As (Pumpkin) Pie

Every North American knows how essential pumpkin pie is to Thanksgiving and Christmas. And because my family has such an amazing pumpkin pie recipe, it’s a dessert I’ve truly, 100%, fallen head-over-heels in love with. However, pumpkin pie is not a staple here in Australia, so I’ve had to bring my Canadian heritage across the Pacific with me, and now seem to be the purveyor of pumpkin pie at every opportunity I get. Aussies love roast pumpkin as a savoury vegetable, so it’s pretty easy to convince them to eat it in pie form, too.

Pumpkin pie is–if not simple, not particularly difficult to make, either. It just requires a bit of patience and gumption, a willingness to not take shortcuts and good humour to make up for whatever mishaps might befall you on your pumpkin pie making adventures. If you’ve read Deanne’s intro to this blog, you’ll know of some of the adventures we three gals had on our pumpkin pie-making night–and while I’ve made this recipe ten times if I’ve made it once, it seems to happen differently every time… and I’ve been convinced on several occasions that it would taste horrible, wouldn’t set, poison someone, or fail completely… and every time, it’s come out as delicious as I remember my mum having made it.

I don’t mean to brag, but this pie has also won awards. It’s that good. It’s so light that even a novice pumpkin pie eater will enjoy it, so don’t let anyone refuse a piece! If you’re ready to take on the glory that is pumpkin pie, roll up your sleeves and prepare for an adventure…

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Edited: January 11th, 2010