French Canadian Tourtière

Tourtière is a French Canadian tradition served during winter. The Gaudreault family always serves this dish at Christmas time with their mom’s (Germaine’s) Tomato Fruit Ketchup. Christian’s sister André recently reminded
me that when they were kids, because their family was so large – 10 children – they would make five tourtières at one time. Every Christmas Eve, the whole family would come over to celebrate, and the tourtières would be served
either before the turkey dinner or alone with vegetables and a salad as a meal in itself. Here is the Gaudreault
family version of French Canadian Tourtière.

• Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
• Prepare the pastry, place in pie shell, and chill.
• In a frying pan on medium heat, sauté the onions in oil for 2 minutes.
• In a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients together except the bread crumbs.
• Add the meat mixture to the onions. Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat.
• Add the bread crumbs and allow to rest for 10 minutes to absorb the moisture.
• Place the cooled mixture into the pastry shell. Cover the top with another layer of pastry and cut slits in the top to let steam out.
• Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.
• Serve with Germaine’s Tomato Fruit Ketchup.

Cookbook available at Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks.