Today I thought I’d share a recipe for homemade tourtière / meat and potato pie, with homemade shortcrust pastry of course. 🙂
This has to be the ultimate traditional food back home in Quebec; you can’t possibly have Christmas without it (or an endless supply for that matter… that gets you through the entire holidays 😛 ). But since living in the UK (especially since being gluten free), I feel like I’ve neglected this tradition… So this year I wanted to bring back a little touch of Quebec in our Christmas celebration and made a bunch! And they turned out so yummy as well, just as good as I remember.
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For the pastry:
I used my usual recipe but I decided to switch it up a little and used the ASDA free from plain flour blend. They have such a good deal going on right now (only 33p!) so I thought I’d give it a try. It might be a coincidence, but honestly I think it turned out even better than usual! Well worth a try. 😀
And just a tip
I recommend preparing your pastry in advance and refrigerating it overnight. I usually only leave it in the fridge or freezer briefly, but I left it in the fridge for a day this time and it was a dream to work with. No sticking, no cracking. So much easier. 🙂
- 2 medium onions
- 4-5 garlic cloves
- 2 medium potatoes
- 250g ground pork
- 250g ground beef
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 250ml chicken stock (or 1 stock cube + 250ml water)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- Salt
- Black pepper
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 300g all purpose gluten free plain flour blend (I used ASDA this time)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp xanthan gum (only if your blend doesn’t already contain it)
- 140g butter (add ⅛ tsp salt if using unsalted)
- 2 eggs
- Egg wash (1 beaten egg, to brush over the pies)
BAKING TIME: 40 to 45 minutes, until brown
Directions
PREPARE THE SHORTCRUST PASTRY:
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl: flour, sugar, salt and xanthan gum (if applicable).
- Add the butter and mix with your hands until you reach a crumb like texture. Note: the butter should be cold, straight out of the fridge.
- Add the eggs and mix until the dough starts to come together and then wet your hands slightly (to prevent sticking) and knead the dough until you reach a smooth ball.
- The pastry is quite sticky and unmanageable at this point so wrap it up in cling film or store in an airtight container and place in the fridge or freezer until solid. At least while you prepare the filling, but ideally overnight (it makes such a big difference).
PREPARE THE FILLING:
- Finely chop the onions and garlic.
- Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes.
- Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil (or butter) in a large non-stick pan on medium heat and cook the onions and garlic until they start to soften up.
- Then add the ground pork and beef and fry until nearly fully cooked.
- Add the potatoes along with the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a generous amount of salt and black pepper. Pan fry briefly until fragrant.
- Add the chicken stock (or stock cube and water) along with the soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
- Bring to boil, then lower the heat to medium/low and simmer until the potatoes are fully cooked and start coming undone slightly. Keep stirring from time to time and add a bit more water at any point if necessary.
- Once cooked, let it cool down completely before filling your pies. Or you can refrigerate it overnight along with the pastry.
MAKE THE PIES:
- Pre-heat the oven to 175C (375F).
- Grease your pie trays (or ramkins/muffin tray if making mini pies) with butter.
- Divide your pastry into equal portions according to how many you want to make, then divide each portion into 2 (for the top and bottom).
- Sprinkle a bit of flour on your work surface (I like to work on a sheet of baking paper to prevent sticking), add a pastry ball and sprinkle a little bit of extra flour on top.
- Flatten with a rolling pin until thin.
- Carefully transfer it onto your pie tray and press it into it with your fingers. Note: an easy way to do it is to roll the pastry around the rolling pin and unroll it on top of your tray. That causes so much less breaking. If all things fail, you can always fix any cracks with your fingers and smudge in extra bits of pastry to fix any holes. No need to be perfect, as long as it works. 😉
- Add some meat and potato pie filling (make sure it has complete cooled down first).
- Then roll another pastry portion and place it on top. Press to secure and trim around the edges with a knife.
- Secure the outer edges by creating indentations all around with a fork.
- Create a few incisions in the middle (to allow steam to come out).
- Then finally, brush a generous amount of beaten egg on top with a pastry brush.
- Repeat with the rest.
- Optional: if you have any leftover bits of pastry, you can roll it and carve little decorations to add on top. I decided to add little leaves. 🙂
BAKE YOUR PIES:
- Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until they reach a nice golden brown colour.
- Let them cool down a bit and serve.
Kimi x
