Here Comes the Pie: Tourtière Traditionnelle Québécoise

The halfway point 

We made pie! More specifically, we made tourtière québécoise, a French Canadian meat pie that is often served during Christmas Eve.

Our learnings from the Argentinian empanadas date taught us to make and freeze the dough ahead of time so that when it came time to prepare the filling, all we had to do was to thaw it out. We did mix up the shortening and butter step, over-knead the dough, and perhaps added a bit too much water to the mixture, but we were hopeful that it would still turn out fine. (Clearly, we are amateurs in the dough game. Lolz.)

It's worth mentioning that thirty minutes to thaw the dough prior to cooking the filling and baking the pie is likely too little: Both Brian's and my doughs were rock solid for the looongest time. I actually resorted to putting the dough on a plate and over my oven's warmer to get it to the correct softness.

Ready for the oven!

Trying to make the top crust look all fancy

Unlike the not-so-fool-proof dough recipe, the filling (and pie) recipe was very straightforward; a good tip that I learned from Brian is to combine all of the ingredients in a bowl before they go on the pan. This tip ensures that the seasoning is evenly distributed throughout the meat. While we were waiting for the filling to cool down, we lined our pie tins with our bottom crust. We then spooned the filling onto the tin and sealed it with the top crust. As Brian's tin was much larger than mine, he could only cover about half of the filling. I told him he could start a new half-pie trend. Haha.

The recipe suggested crimping the edges with a fork and cutting slits on the top crust to let the steam out. It helps that these two suggestions also make the pie look gorgeous.

Ta-da!

Yum, yum, yum!

After forty minutes of baking, the pie was out of the oven and on the dinner table. It was such a beautiful thing--as was Brian's (contrary to what he thinks!). I am quite proud of what we made! Mind you, our pizzas were pretty impressive too. We ate our tourtière with gravy on the side; it was a great combination. I got my family to try a slice too, and they gave it good reviews (though my dad won't take it to work for lunch. Sadness.).

Avec gravy

Tourtières are great fun to make, and I doubt that this'll be the last time we'll make them. Enjoy the food pictures!