1 lb Ground pork
1 cl Garlic; minced
1 sm Onion; minced
1/2 ts Salt
White pepper
Savory
Ground
Cloves
Small amount of water
Pastry:
2 c All-purpose flour
1 ts Salt
1/2 ts Baking soda
1 pn Turmeric
1/4 ts Savory
1/2 c Pure lard
1/3 c Ice water
1/3 c Butter
Serve with:
Pickled beets
Although, technically, you can have tourtiere contain any sort of
meat (beef, pork, veal, beaver, salmon, etc.), the traditional
winter dish is made with only ground pork.
Count 1 lb of not too lean ground pork per tourtiere (you want
more than 10% fat...I have found that that's too lean). Mix meat,
per lb, with: one small clove of garlic, minced, one small onion,
minced, 1/2 ts salt, white pepper/savory/ground cloves to taste,
roughly 1/4 ts per lb. (in other words, taste the meat; this has
to be achieved by experimentation as usually you will be making
more than 1 lb of meat at a time), a small amount of water (as
much as fits into your hand - it keeps the meat tender and helps
to steam it a bit as well as browning it)
Saute the meat gently until it is lightly browned, no pink, and very
little liquid is left (if it looks like it will cook too long while
waiting for the liquid to evaporate, drain some it). Place into
prepared pie plates. Bake in 350 F oven for 30-45 minutes, until
surface is browned. Serve with pickled beets.
As you can see, it isn't a precise thing. Also, always use white
pepper (if you don't already) in preparing any dish. Black pepper
is fine for the table, but white pepper is best for flavouring
during the cooking. The water trick is common when cooking pork.
It keeps the meat from hardening in the cooking process. I also
use a few judicious handfuls of water in pork meat when making
ragout de boulettes (or as it's sometimes called "ragout de
patte") and the meat is always VERY tender.
Keep in mind that a tourtiere is not a very strong tasting dish.
However, it should be fragrant when coming out of the oven.
For a very good crust, Madame Benoit offers the following:
Stir the flour, salt, baking soda, turmeric and savory together in a
bowl. Cut in the lard, or mix with a pastry blender or two knives
until the particles are about the size of peas. Add ice water by the
tablespoon (15 mL), stirring with a fork or the tips of your fingers,
until just enough has been added so that you can pat the dough into a
ball. (Since flour varies, you may not need all the water.) Handle
the dough as little as possible at this stage.
Roll out the pastry, dot with the butter, and roll up toward you like
a jelly roll, and roll out again in a flat sheet. Roll out again 2
or 3 times. Refrigerate a few hours before using.
