Holiday Dishes: French-Canadian Tourtière (Meat Pie)

As I stated on the Off The Menu facebook page, through the end of the year, I will be making traditional holiday dishes from around the world.  This week I chose to make a tourtière.  This dish originated in what is now Quebec, and is traditionally served on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, or Christmas.

A tourtière is usually made of beef and pork, however I made mine with ground turkey that is seasoned to perfection.  Throw in some mashed potatoes, and top it all with a flaky golden brown crust, and you have yourself one satisfying meal in a pie that I just might be making at holiday time from now on.

Ingredients:

• 2 pie crusts (I used the same crust that I use for my empanadas)
• 1 pound of ground turkey
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 2 medium potatoes
• 2 teaspoons all-spice 
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 3 tablespoons safflower oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 egg beaten 

Steps: 

Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes into 2 inch thick slices.  Then cut the slices in half.  I chose to leave the skins on my potatoes.

Put the potato slices into a large microwave safe bowl.

Cover the potatoes completely with water by 1 inch.

 Microwave on high for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

When the potatoes are tender, pour the contents of the bowl into a colander to drain the water.

Put the potatoes back into the bowl, mash with a potato masher until creamy.

Place mashed potatoes in the refrigerator for later.

Heat a large skillet with 2 oil over medium heat.

While the oil is heating, chop the onion into chunks and place in the blender along with the beef broth.

Puree the onion.

Add the pureed onion to the heated skillet and stir.

Saute the onion for 10 minutes making sure to stir occasionally.

Once the onion is finished, add the ground turkey salt, all-spice, fennel seeds, thyme, and pepper.

Brown the meat, making sure that the meat and the onion are mixed together well.

Put in the refrigerator.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Prepare the pie crust by placing it in a 9 inch pie pan coated with safflower oil.

Take the mashed potatoes and meat and mix together in a large bowl.  Make sure to mix the two together very well.

Spoon the mixture (doesn't it smell delicious?) into the prepared pie dish.

Cover the top with the second pie crust.

Crimp the edges together.

Poke a hole in the center of the pie.

Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg.  By doing this, the top of the pie will brown up very nicely, this makes for a nice presentation.

Place your pie into the heated oven and bake for 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

After you take the pie out of the oven, let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

What a winner of a meal!  I know that this is one that I will be making again!