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Tourtières fresh out of the oven- meat pie style
In Quebec the tourtière keeps its noble place on tables during the Réveillon or Christmas Eve. My family, which left Quebec 30 years ago for British Columbia still eats tourtière at Christmas too. If you do not know what the tourtière is, for many it is a meat pie with or without potatoes, but in Lac-St-Jean and Gaspésie it is a deep dish mix of meats covered with dough.
Scraping dough off the table
On November 20th I went to Aux Purs Délices the pastry shop on Church Street in Verdun to participate in the Réseau d’Entraide de Verdun bi-annual tourtière making day. Mr. L’Anglais generously leaves us his bakery and supplies with the boxes, aluminum pie trays, the use of his ovens and rolling pins to make the pies. The tourtière are sold for $3.00 each and are very popular at Christmas time. We make tourtières to fund my cooking workshops amongst other activities. Making them is a lively gig where one group of volunteers does the morning shift and another group the afternoon shift. The volunteers are put in different modes of production: most roll tops and bottoms, while others fill the pies, cover them, cut an “X” and brush the tops with egg wash, and others still fill the speed rack and the ovens. We get to taste the shop’s delicious pastries. The radio plays and we sing along with music from the 70’s and 80’s. You will hear comments like “C’est Richard Seguin qui chante ça. J’y ferais pas mal. Je passerai mes mains dans ses cheveux.” There’s a lot of fooling around, but we also manage to pump out about 400 tourtière’s in a day thanks to the energy of the volunteers, the rotating oven that fits 72 tourtière s at a time and because of the sheer love for tourtière.
- Production at Aux Purs Delices
Working the dough
While I was doing research for a contract the same week, I stumbled on “The Long History of Tourtière of Quebec’s Lac-St-Jean” by Jean-Pierre Lemasson in What’s to Eat: Entrées in Canadian Food History, Edited by Nathalie Cooke. It turns out that tourtière may have come from tourterelle or turtle dove pie. It may also have come from the name of the dish tourtière that it was cooked in, but the first recorded tourtière -like recipe dates back to 1600 B.C. Mesopotamia. It instructs to boil gizzards and intestines with aromatic bark, salt, fat and rue. It uses onion, samidu (an unknown spice from Mesopotamia), leek, garlic, sasku semolina and milk for the dough, and of course, poultry.
In 400 AD there is a version made with tripe, lovage, eggs and wheat flour.
There is also the Cipaille or Cipâte in Gaspésie whose ancestors are the Sea Pie, Cipaye, Cipare, Six pâtes (6 doughs), six pailles (six straws). This traditionally had 6 layers, but it has ebbed into something made with what people have: traditionally pork and veal. The tourtière has become a meat pie for those outside of Lac-St-Jean. In the Middle Ages, however, the six layers included:
1) Fried chicken with onions and spices
2) White and Green (parsley) ravioli
3) Sausage, minced meat and ham
4) Minced pork with cheese and eggs
5) Sausage, brain, marrow, cheese and herbs
6) Ravioli with almonds, half of them sweetened with sugar
Between each layer there were stuffed dates and eggs. Sounds like an Epic Meal Time feat to me. This was the decadent version, but the beauty of the meat pie is that it cuts across class lines because you can use what you have. For the Réseau d’Entraide’s we used ground pork that had been donated and the dough from Aux Purs Délices. The pies are humble, but delicious and they are at a price that is affordable to all, even those with the least and they help to finance food security measures, food hampers, collective kitchen groups and cooking workshops that give people the culinary tools to save money, eat better and build autonomy.
Getting ready for the Tops Tops on- Check- ready for trimming and grooming.
Finishing Touches
Charlevoix and Lac-St-Jean both claim to be the home of the real tourtière. My Simard ancestors first landed in Charlevoix, but then many Simard’s moved to Lac-St-Jean. Maybe the tourtière had a similar story. The tourtières roots run much deeper than that thought. Meat pies are one of the earliest recipes known to man. There are versions throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Slavic countries. They have been exported around the world (patties, empanadas)- everyone has a version. Maybe that explains the deep nostalgia we feel when we eat tourtière at Christmas. The feeling is deeper than Quebec pride, it is engrained on our genes and a symbol of survival, movement around the planet and baking our own version of “abundance” . Companion means “bread sharer” in Latin, so as soon as you have the crust holding everything together, you have a real party and coming together.
Party in a Box for $3.00
Challenge: I challenge you to make your own meat pie with as many layers as you see fit, that represents who you are, your social strata and your genetic evolution.
Toutière Enthusiasts
For more info about tourtière click here:
If you want to see my recipe for Catsup aux Fruits which is great with tourtière click the photo below
Convection oven with Rotating Racks- We baked 72 tourtière at a time- 144 if we wanted to.
Vibrant is as Vibrant Does
Mile End Wheat Grass smoothie, Le Saint-Viateur (Berries, yogourt, etc) and Blushing Beauty- celery, apple and beet juice
For many of the days between Oct. 4th and 16th 2011, I subbed in for Valerie Legge at her juice bar Ô Jus in Mile End on the corner of Park Avenue and St-Viateur. She is the owner of Ô Jus, and she is also a life-coach who was recently in Germany and Italy giving a Coaching conference. Valerie is a Buddhist-inspired Vegetarian, Life-coaching Sagittarius inside and outside of Ô Jus. Her values translate directly into the business she opened. She has a philosophical attitude to starting and running her business; she spreads nutrition and good cheer. She makes delicious fresh juices and smoothies, home-made baking, paninis and soups and has a variety of high end hot chocolate, cereal coffee, teas and tisanes and coffee. She also has wheat-grass, all natural protein powder, organic lavender and home-made sorbet to complete her repertoire.
Valerie Legge- owner, life-coach, vegetarian, Sagittarius
Every time I work at Ô Jus, I get out of there feeling invigorated. Valerie has made a space that gives off positive vibes and attracts good souls. People gravitate to Ô Jus because they are vigilant about their health and what they put in their bodies, because they want something delicious to feel good, because they want to work on the computers or soak in the sun from the terrace or the front window or because they just want to talk and be around Valerie or in the store’s colourful atmosphere.
Wall of monitors at Ô Jus
View on Park Avenue
Valerie’s soups are comforting in the cold and always have an exotic twist: red lentil and coconut, chick pea, curry and mint, sweet potato, carrot, orange and ginger. She makes decadent and nourishing energy balls with dates, nuts, seeds and many things I can’t tell you…She also always has home-made muffins like banana and chocolate chip, Mindfulness muffins and lavender and lemon muffins. Her Cosmic Cookies attract regulars and are as delicious as a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie but with so much more: dried fruit, coconut, seeds, etc. They are dense and intense and very addictive…
The Colours and the tastes
Valerie has also allowed me to give workshops about detox regimes with a focus on juicing and smoothies and a workshop about high-protein home-made smoothies without protein powders: some vegan and some not. Workshops to come include Food and Mood and happy juices and smoothies (Nov. 29th, 2011) and green smoothies (Jan 2012). They are enjoyable and are an extension of the juice bar being a life-style institution and not simply an economic endeavour.
Workshop about detox dieting in 2010
I enjoyed the simplicity of working at Ô Jus, baking and making soup at a slow pace, taking in the heady smells. I also enjoyed the friendliness and curiosity of the clients who embrace health and well-being and share themselves. People chatted me up and exchanged business cards and ideas readily. This is particular to Mile End, I believe, and Ô Jus fits right in. In Mile End, for many, it is reasonable, even preferable, to take care of one’s body and live in a thoughtful manner. Health foods and nutrition are not for extra-terrestrials. It seems to beMontreal’s diet for a small planet mecca. There is junk food around like there is everywhere, but at Ô Jus, there were parents taking their kids for a fresh-pressed juice as a treat – new values are being nourished!
Workshop participants- detoxers for life!
Feel free to stop in to Ô Jus (5443 Park Ave.) and taste the fare. Get to know Valerie and open-up to the world where zen is common-place: celebrating the richness of the moment and the wonderful and simple treasures the Earth has to offer.
Ô Jus (5443 Park Ave.)
Conserving Autumn: Canning, Fermenting and Salting it!
Hot vegetables in brine, pickled spiced beets, salted herbs and ketchup
The weekend of October 21st to the 23rd was spent canning, salting and starting vegetables fermenting. Friday the 21st of October, Judith Colombo, elite member of the 4 COINS DE LA TABLE dinner club for […]
Hot vegetables in brine, pickled spiced beets, salted herbs and ketchup
Conserving Autumn: Canning, Fermenting and Salting it!
Hot vegetables in brine, pickled spiced beets, salted herbs and ketchup
The weekend of October 21st to the 23rd was spent canning, salting and starting vegetables fermenting. Friday the 21st of October, Judith Colombo, elite member of the 4 COINS DE LA TABLE dinner club for many years, went into the fields of D-Trois Pierres in Cap-St-Jacques and harvested cases of vegetables and herbs for the dinner club to transform. She is the agricultural co-ordinator of the largest organic farm on the island of Montreal, and, although she said this was a terrible year, boy she grew some beautiful vegetables. We had picked the date 3 weeks prior, and it was the very end of the season and the organic food hampers. Each member of the dinner club planned and brought the ingredients to transform a vegetable or two. Judith made a salsa with the tomatoes, peppers, onions and hot peppers. Jeremy made swiss chard in a highly seasoned lemon and garlic oil and vegetables and hot peppers in brine. Suzanne, Tisha and Majiza (mother and daughters) made sweet and spicy beets and started a beet sauerkraut, Ameur salted herbs, Gisèle pickled root vegetables and Mario (my blog techie) made a Portuguese tomato jam with porto and cinnamon. I bought some apples and nectarines and used the farm’s onions, celery and tomatoes to make catsup aux fruits (fruit ketchup). When I got home, I started a cabbage sauerkraut and a kale kimchi fermenting.
some of the beautiful vegetables Judith Colombo grew at D-Trois Pierres
We made 72 jars of stuff in an evening, and 3 buckets of cellar vegetables are still fermenting. It was a party of abundance, marking the changing of the seasons, and it was heart-warming to send each other off with a dozen jars for each household. The preserves are not only useful and delicious, but a reminder of the seasons, local production and the people that made the preserves with love.
Nectarines and tomatoes scalding in order to peel.
Just like in the old school
We were also reminded of how much work agricultural life entailed back in the day. We canned from 4pm to midnight, and we were numerous. However, a woman doing it by herself after milking the cows, tending the fields, cooking and caring for her children…I can guarantee she didn’t have time to complain about the change in temperature or ponder what to do with her life. Like back in the day, all of the women did all of the organizing, delegating tasks, gathering mason jars and were ready to work when they got there. The girls started work at 4pm, Judith around 1pm picking the vegetables and the guys trickled in around 6:30, 7 o’clock ready to drink beer. Jeremy knew what the work entailed as he does product transformation for Wing Noodle, but the other guys insisted we were there “to have a good time”. At the end of the night, everyone was wiped, but we were really happy with what we’d done. I think some actually realized that, although it was work, work does not always mean suffering. It is actually key in developing one’s sense of purpose, accomplishment and self-esteem. When you make the effort, you get the pay-off. Avoiding the effort is even more painful than digging-in. It is also nice to attack the work as a group, make a party out of it and help the other with their task. Each person has different strengths to offer.
Cabbage Patch- Mommy is that where sauerkraut comes from?
The canning was not done. I had a workshop with the Réseau d’Entraide de Verdun as well. We went out to D-Trois Pierres (in Cap-St-Jacques) the morning of Sunday October 23rd and picked carrots, beets, cabbage, herbs, rutabagas, white turnips, and some green tomatoes. There were 2 families and an individual. There was a buzz in the air. It’s exciting getting out of the city, and it was beautiful out. When we got back to the Réseau d’Entraide de Verdun, we made a fast sauerkraut, catsup aux fruits (fruit ketchup), salted herbs and pickled beets.
I loosening carrots from the ground
Some of the people that came out had never been to a farm before, and, before they came to the farm, some of the kids didn’t really understand that a carrot grew under the ground. They were mesmerized by the farm animals and just generally enraptured by the countryside. As with the dinner club, they also found out that a day of picking vegetables and conserving them is really hard work. Surprisingly, the kids out-toughed the adults, and it was a really magical…and productive day.
La verdure
First time Canners
Ladybugs that followed us back to Verdun, at one point we realized there was about twenty of them on the fluorescent lights at Réseau d'Entraide
Rosy cheeks- a little tired, still going hard
The weekend of Oct. 21st to the 23rd was a work sprint like in the old school. It didn’t pay, but it stocked the shelves in quite a few pantries for winter and got together dear friends from the dinner club and other Verdun citizens that wanted to learn to preserve the fruit, vegetable and herb fall bounty. We were put back in contact with the Earth, and we remembered where vegetables come from, that people grow and harvest them and the work that goes into transporting and preparing them. It ended up being a celebration of the seasons and a breath of fresh air and solidarity. Stay tuned for more cooking parties of the sort.
The troops on the move
I've never seen so much Catsup aux Fruits in my Life!
Modern Canning
