Tourtiere- anyone know a recipe that doesn't use ground pork?
Hi hounds,
Put this on the NE board but figured this might deserve a repost here...
I'm a 10 years now displaced (CA) New Englander who's missing a bit of home, namely, mom's holiday-tradition tourtiere.
I've seen a lot of recipes online that all seem to start similarly: get ground pork, cook pork to death in water, add mashed potatoes. Not the blissfully rich, spiced pie I remember at all!
Does anyone have a recipe for a tourtiere that does not start with lean ground pork? I'd like to make some comfort food for Thanksgiving and I think that will make all the difference...
Thank you!
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prima
Dec 4, 2012 01:06 PM
Does anyone have a recipe calling for venison?
I realize I could just follow the Picard recipe, and use a mixture of pork and venison.
Found this link to some unusual tourtieres http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyl... , including a pork/beef/veal/venison version, and a seafood version from the Gaspe.
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re: prima
prima
Dec 19, 2012 05:30 PM
another pork/beef/veal version, calling for cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon:
http://www.cbc.ca/inthekitchen/2012/10/stefanos-tourtiere.html
vegetarian chickpea and mushroom tourtiere:
http://www.ricardocuisine.com/recipes/1075-meatless-tourtiere-with-chickpeas-and-mushrooms
tourtiere brioche:
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hey all, just a follow-up: the Martin Picard recipe was absolutely excellent! I added some extra whole allspice and cloves to the braising pork shoulder, and drained off a good amount of the fat from the braising liquid before adding it back to the rest of the pie filling.
Also this was my first attempt at a homemade pie crust and thanks to the magic of replacing some water with cold vodka (no gluten formation), it was successful.
One of our dinner guests brought a friend who was in town from Montreal who gave my diplaced tourtiere very high marks! -
If you don't want to do a tourtiere with ground meat, you can always go the way of a Tourtière Lac St-Jean, from the eponymous region of Quebec, which uses cubed meat instead. (they believe a real tourtiere is only made that way, what we call tourtiere made with ground meat is simply a meat pie, but that's a debate that's been going on for generations!)
I can't vouch for this recipe, as i've never done it, but it will give you an idea of what to use, and how to do such a tourtière!
http://www.enjoy-how-to-cook.com/tour...Otherwise, for a ground meat one, my mom's recipe uses pork and veal, nutmeg, clove, black pepper, salt, no potato at all (or starch) so it's a little more crumbly, but so good! And try to get your pork not so lean!
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So... going with this one:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...
Maybe not too traditional but looks like the moist, rich pie I want. Going to have to up the spices, though, 1/8 teaspoon of each seems light.›3 Replies-
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re: jdwdeville
biondanonima
Dec 4, 2012 01:51 PM
I'm planning to make this one for Christmas Eve myself this year. However, to answer the OP's question, my mother (who lived in Montreal for several years before I was born and supposedly picked up the recipe from a native friend) made tourtiere with ground beef when we were growing up. Simple one-to-one sub in any tourtiere recipe you like. I may even use ground beef in the Epicurious recipe instead of ground pork.
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CocoaChanel
Nov 17, 2012 04:54 AM
Here is a pork based recipe (and venison - not sure how available that is in California), but I have substituted turkey and it was quite delicious. David Lee is a chef here in Toronto and owned Splendido, one of the top restaurants in the city.
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re: FriedClamFanatic
The Professor
Nov 17, 2012 07:37 AM
Unless there's a religious issue, I'd definitely stick with pork. I would seem that the big mistake is the directives you're reading which say to start with lean ground pork...that would be a fail, right out of the gate. You should definitely begin with pork that has a decent percentage of fat not only for the added richness, but for better flavor.
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re: jdwdeville
chefj
Nov 19, 2012 04:06 PM
You need fattier pork. Onion
Some people start with a little water just to get the Pork to break up easily but I never found it necessary .
Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Bay are the spices I use about a half tsp of each for a couple of pounds of Pork. You can also use 2 tsp of Quatre épices for the sweet spices. Grated Onion.
The Potato should absorb the fat and act as a binder, if you think that it will be too dry a little Heavy Cream and /or Chicken stock works wonders(for texture and flavor).-
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re: chefj
pinehurst
Nov 19, 2012 04:16 PM
I could go for a piece right now, and would love to try that simple variation....there are so many variations to the pie, and all are so good. I've had some with a very flaky, salty crust, and some with a moister, thicker crust. Everyone has their own spin. Your recipe did a great job of getting down all the items that made the "classic" pie of my childhood, chefj.
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As a former Montrealer, I love Tourtiere myself with a side of Chili Sauce. Last year I made a recipe from Chuck Hughes(recipe on cookingchanneltv website). It is made with ground pork and veal(I substituted ground turkey for the veal) and shredded potatoes. I used chicken stock in place of veal stock. I made the crust with lard and butter and made half the recipe into 2 9" pies. I baked one and froze the second one unbaked and we had it about a month later. We thought it was delicious, not dry and nicely spiced. I will be making it again this year. HTH nadia
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sunshine842
Nov 16, 2012 11:13 PM
since it seems getting your mom's recipe isn't an option (is there a cousin/aunt/other relative who might have it? Or who might at least know some of the ingredients?)...
..Tourtiere is of French origin, and there seems to be many variations in Quebec....You might want to try googling "tourtiere recette", which would trigger the French-language recipes...then Google Translate and http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/... will get you through it.
I know it's the long way round....but I wish you luck.
