So as of my last post, I wasn’t in the Christmas spirit, and I hadn’t started shopping. I went on a shopping spree yesterday, both online and in the stores, and got most of it done! And I am now feeling much more in the spirit. The decorations in the store, the music on the radio. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas now! 🙂
If you’re looking for a new holiday tradition, consider tourtière. It’s a French-Canadian meat pie served traditionally on Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Years. It originated in Quebec but has since spread in popularity throughout Canada and bordering states in the United States. The recipe I found uses ground pork along with potatoes, carrots, celery and onion to make it a well rounded dish. The cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg provide a unique and delicious flavor that is both warming and comforting. Traditionally, tourtière is served in a full sized pie dish with both a top and bottom crust. This Cooking Light version makes individual portions with only a top crust, which cuts calories and makes for adorable presentation! Bon appetit!
Tourtière
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground red pepper
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped carrot
⅓ cup finely chopped celery
1 (1-pound) russet potato, peeled and cut into ¼-inch cubes
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1½ cups chicken broth
Pastry for 1 pie crust
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Heat the olive oil until shimmering, then add pork. Sprinkle pork with salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, red pepper, and cloves; sauté for 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add onion, carrot, celery, potato, and garlic; toss to combine and sauté for 5 more minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in flour, and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until slightly thick.
Place 1 cup pork mixture into each of 6 (8-ounce) ramekins. Roll pie dough to an 11-inch circle. Cut dough into 6 (5-inch) circles, re-rolling dough as needed. Place 1 dough circle on each ramekin, tucking edges inside. Cut 4 slits in the top of each circle. Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
Source: Adapted from Cooking Light
Oh, yummy – did you ever try a “Cornish Pasty”? It’s like a pastry pocket with meat, potato, swede, turnip etc inside and the filling looks exactly like this one, and even the pastry in your picture is making me dream of England right now 😀 This looks beautiful – and I bet it must be delicious 🙂
Individual servings, what a fantastic idea. Do you think I could substitute other meats instead of pork?
Of course! Other recipes call for beef, but I’m sure any ground meat you like would work!
This is totally a Canadian dish and I must try to make it! Love the little dishes, etc:)
I love that it is a Canadian version of one of our family favorites- meat pies. I must try this. My husband would certainly love it and I like the idea of using pork instead of beef
These sound really tasty! Upper Michigan has a tradition of meat pasties but sometimes I’d rather not have a hand-held pie. Love that you made these single-serve.
I’ve never heard of these before, but what a fun dish! I love learning of new traditions.
I love the light touch and individual baking dishes. They look so cute compared to one big pie.
I love meat pies and I don’t think I’d need it to be the holidays to enjoy this one. 😉