Martin Picard Tourtiere
It’s time for this month’s Baking Partners Challenge. The theme for this month is PIE!
This time around I had the chance to pick one of the recipe options for the group and I went with a tourtière– a classic French-Canadian meat pie.
I’ve never made a tourtière before and I wanted it to be good, so I searched out a recipe from my favourite French Canadian chef, Martin Picard of Au Pied de Cochon.
I love the hell out of pie.
I don’t make pies as often as I’d like because they’re dangerous in my company but I really, really love them (even if they’re not all that cool).
I’m fond of a flavourful and flaky crust (even if its flakiness sacrifices its appearance) and the filling is just an added bonus.
So for this recipe Picard’s crust was forgone in order to allow me to experiment a bit. I normally make my crusts with butter, but I figured there would be no better time to try a lard crust than in a pork-filled pie.
Lard is known for making very flaky pastry and, since I wanted to get more flakiness without sacrificing the flavour of butter, I split the fat in my pie crust recipe into a ratio of 60% lard to 40% butter. It was fantastic.
The lard crust seemed to me to be slightly harder to work with. As usual, it didn’t look the prettiest but the flakiness was stellar. I still have some lard left over that I would really like to try in a sweet pie next time.
Oh yeah, and about that filling? SO GOOD. This recipe was a huge hit with both Matt and I.
Martin Picard Tourtiere du Shack
I increased the amount of spices slightly from Picard’s original recipe to give it more flavour. The filling makes more than enough for one 9 inch pie, so I used the extra to make pork filled fatayer.
This recipe took me a full day to make but it’s not all hands-on time. If you plan it out properly you can make a lot of the components ahead of time and just pop the pie in the oven right before you want to serve it. I’d like to try freezing a prepared pie to see how that works.
Makes 1 very deep 9 inch pie.
Adapted from Martin Picard
Ingredients
Crust
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
3/4 c. cold lard cut into 1/2” pieces
1/2 c. cold salted butter cut into 1/2” pieces
8 – 10 Tbsp. ice water
Filling
1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 medium onions, chopped, divided
4 garlic cloves, chopped, divided
5 whole black peppercorns plus freshly ground black pepper
5 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into 2″ pieces
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
8 medium button mushrooms, stemmed and finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/4 pounds ground pork
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup grated, peeled russet potato
All-purpose flour (for surface)
1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend
Directions
Crust
Pulse the flour, salt, lard, and butter in a food processor 4 or 5 times until you get large quarter-sized crumbles. (Forget the pea-sized business. You want big chunks here)
Add the water tablespoon at a time, pulsing once between additions until the dough just starts to come together. It will still be pretty crumbly but you should be able to form it into a ball with your hands.
Divide the mixture in half and form each half into a ball. Wrap them in plastic wrap individually and, once wrapped, flatten them into a disc. Refrigerate 1-2 hours before using. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.
Filling
Preheat oven to 325°. Combine broth, 1/2 chopped onion, 1 chopped garlic clove, whole peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaves in a medium pot. Add pork shoulder; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Cover pot. Transfer to oven; braise until pork shoulder is tender and shreds easily, about 2 hours. Remove from oven; let cool.
Transfer pork shoulder to a work surface. Shred meat with your fingers and transfer to a medium bowl. Strain pan juices through a fine-mesh sieve; add 1/2 cup juices to pork; discard solids in strainer.
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add remaining 1 chopped onion and 3 chopped garlic cloves; cook, stirring often, until soft, 5–7 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook, stirring often, until almost all liquid is evaporated, 5–7 minutes. Add wine; stir, scraping up browned bits. Bring to a boil; cook, stirring often, until liquid is almost evaporated, about 5 minutes.
Add ground pork, cinnamon, and cloves. Cook, stirring to break up into small pieces, until pork is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add potato. Cook until potato is soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in shredded pork with juices. Season to taste with salt and pepper; let cool slightly. Chill until cold, about 1 hour. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled.
Roll out 1 dough disk on a lightly floured surface into a 12″ round. Transfer to a deep 9” pie dish, leaving overhang. Fill with cooled meat mixture. Roll out remaining dough disk into a 10″ round. Place dough over meat filling. Fold overhang over top crust and crimp edges. Brush crust with egg yolk. Cut three 2″ slits in top crust. Chill for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400°. Bake tourtière for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°; bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 40–50 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.
If you’re looking for some more savoury pie recipes, here are a few that I’ve made and loved.
Related Posts:
26 Comments
Leave a comment
- e-mail: samanthaamenzies@gmail.com
- Samantha Menzies is an opinionated young firecracker who just happens to enjoy distracting web surfers with chronicles of her mildly entertaining daily pursuits.
I’m sad to say I’ve never heard of tourtière, which is apparently not popular in the limited areas of the US in which I’ve lived. Yours looks perfectly flaky and delicious! Have you ever tried Crisco in pie crust? (Not that I’m recommending shortening or anything
) It’s a manufactured fat designed for flaky baked goods. It’s not great for you, but, boy, does it work well.
I’ve never tried Crisco in anything before. I know that a lot of people like to use shortening because it holds its shape really well so it makes the crust easier to decorate but I’ve never tried it. I’m a bit leery about shortening, to be honest.
Cool blog
love the pie!
http://www.monicainheels.blogspot.com
Nice blog!!! I love the pie!
beautiful >>>>i love the flaky crust , will keep this in mind next time
Definitely give it a try!
Flaky yummy looking pie…Beautiful..
Thanks!
Every Christmas Eve, my family has French-Canadian meat pie as one of the options…. because we’re French-Canadian.
And it is AMAZING! Yours looks so beautiful, and flaky, and savory…. and SO delish!
Have you ever posted the recipe? If it’s anything like your Memere’s baked beans then I bet it’s amazing.
Hi Samantha, your savoury pie is out of the world!! Now I am thinking why did I not try it. Though we do not eat pork, I guess I can replace it with chicken. Will keep this recipe in mind the next time I have a pie urge!!
I bet the meat from a shredded whole chicken would be enough to replace both the pork shoulder and the ground pork. Pork is a bit fattier than chicken so the dish might taste a bit leaner, but I think it could still be quite good.
Oh how inviting is that slice. Excellent work
Thanks Pallavi!
Looks delicious! We don’t eat meat, but I am sure we can replace it with veggies or tofu! Your suggestion for the tart was awesome..Thanks for the suggestion
Crust looks flaky and yummy and wonderful filling,looks so good
Thanks for suggesting recipe Samantha,tried the sun-dried tomato and onion tart,loved it
Beautiful crust and savory pie looks relish
Ur pie looks soo delecious… congrauts on making so
Samantha, I love your flaky pie crust, you did very well. I will try with some veggie fillings.
With some salads, this tourtiere will makes a super filling dinner na..Well done with an incredible super flaky crust.
Lovely pictures!! delectable crust..Love is to try this with veggis..
Thanks for dropping by my site. Your pie looks fantastic. Cheers from Spain
Looks fabulously delicious! I’ll definitely be trying this Tourtiere one of these days!
Hi Samantha, thank you for introducing us to the sun dried tomato tart, we all loved it.., you have also enjoyed making your pie so it seems, the crusts look perfectly done.., being a vegetarian I do not know how to comment on the filling but I can replace them veggies and enjoy it..lovely clicks as well…
[...] know it probably doesn’t sound as exciting as macarons(!) or cookies(!) or pie(!), but to me it’s super exciting because it means bread making. . . an you know I love bread [...]
[...] themes were Super Soft White Bread, Macarons, Pie, Christmas Cake, Kaiser Buns, Cupcakes, and [...]