An old fashioned version of French Canadian Tourtière made with offal!
For those who are not in the know, abats translates to offal. Offal is organ meat. In recent years, a rebirth of interest in gourmet offal creations has occurred. A few fine Las Vegas chefs specialize in modern and classic offal creations. This shows that fine dining customers do still have interest in more that just trendy fusion food. The first time that I had tourtière was back in high school, when I was invited to dinner at a French Canadian friends house. The family was from Quebec and their meals were heavy and rich, just like they were back home. When the tourtière was cut open at the table, I smelled liver and kidneys. I asked my friend what was in the meat pie and he said "Don't ask!" Then he started laughing. I guess that he thought that I had never eaten innards before. Liver was a regular home cooked meal at my house. Kidneys were not really on our home menu, but I had experienced kidney in restaurants. My friend then ran through a list of offals that were in the tourtière that his French Canadian mother cooked. Tripe, chicken liver, pork liver, calves liver, kidneys, beef heart, pork lardons and ground pork were the meats in the pie. My friend then explained that this tourtière was an old family recipe and that most modern tourtière are not made this way. That was all the information that I could get, because it was time to shut up and eat dinner! That old fashioned tourtière tasted very rich and it was well prepared. I never forgot that old fashioned Quebec style meat pie. Recently, I decided to do a string of offal recipes. I did some recipe research on French Canadian tourtière and I was surprised to see no recipes for a meat pie that had any offal in the list of ingredients. Nearly every tourtière recipe that I saw was made only with ground pork. I then thought that the French Canadian family's tourtière must have been a very old recipe, so I looked into the origins of this meat pie. Originally, tourtière was made with wild game and wild game offal or secondary cuts of farm animals that included offal. This may be the reason that tourtière is so heavily spiced. Long ago, both Canadians and Americans wasted nothing. Eating offal was routine. Organ meat is highly perishable and in the old days the offal was eaten first. A big pie full of offal and scraps was a good way to get the the highly perishable items cooked, so they would not spoil. In modern times, offals are not cheap. In the old days, offals were dirt cheap food. This Tourtière d'abats is not cheap to make, but it is very nutritious and filling. Since this is French Canadian food, Tourtière d'abats is definitely in the heavy cold winter food category. This old rustic tourtière version is a tasty cold weather comfort food meal!
Pate Brisee Recipe: Place about 1 cup of flour into a mixing bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt. Add 3/4 tablespoon of sugar. Rice the flour by adding a few drops of ice water at a time while stirring with a whisk. (The flour should look like grains of rice.) Cut 1 1/2 ounces of unsalted butter into pea size pieces and drop them in a bowl of ice water. Gently add a few pieces of the chilled hard butter at a time to the riced flour. Work the dough lightly with your fingers and for a minimal period of time leaving exposed small pieces of butter. Chill the dough, till it becomes very firm. Roll the pate brisee into a thin sheet on a floured counter top. (The sheet of pate brisee should show streaks of butter! This is what will give the pate brisee a flakey crusty texture.) Refrigerate the sheet of pate brisee, till it becomes firm again.
Tourtière d'abats filling: This recipe makes 1 single portion pie! Any combination of offals is good for this recipe. Kidneys were not available, so none are in the list of ingredients. Place a small pot of water over medium low heat. Add 1 bay leaf. Add 2 ounces of small bite size pieces of trimmed book end tripe. Add sea salt. Simmer the trip, till it becomes gelatinous and fully cooked. Drain the water off of the tripe and set it aside. Heat a saute pan over medium/medium low heat. Add 1 tablespoon of pork lard. Add 1 slice of smoked bacon that is chopped. Saute till the grease has rendered and the bacon becomes a golden color. Add 2 minced garlic cloves. Add 2 tablespoons of minced onion. Add 1 tablespoon of minced celery. Saute till the onions turn clear in color. Add 4 ounces of bite size pieces of calves liver. Saute till the calves liver pieces become halfway cooked. Add 2 finely minced chicken livers. Saute and stir, til the chicken livers become fully cooked. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour, while stirring, to absorb the excess grease. Add the reserved tripe pieces. Add 1/2 cup of brandy. Scrape and deglace the pan. Add 1 1/2 cups of beef stock. Add sea salt and black pepper. Add 1 pinch of ground sage. Add 2 pinches of thyme. Add 1 pinch of ground clove. Add 2 pinches of cinnamon. Add 2 pinches of nutmeg. Add 2 pinches of minced Italian parsley. Add 1 small pinch of cayenne pepper. Bring the liquid to a gentle boil. Reduce the temperature to low heat. Simmer and reduce, till a the mixture looks like a heavy liver mush, with a minimum of excess gravy liquid. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Place the offal mixture in a mixing bowl. Add 3 ounces of lean ground pork. Add 1 ounce of diced pork fat. Mix the ingredients together. Chill the filling till it becomes lower than room temperature.
Tourtière d'abats: Lightly brush a 5" pop-ring cake mold with melted unsalted butter. The mold should be 2 1/2" to 3" tall. Cut 2 round shaped sheets of the pate brisee that are 10" wide. Drape 1 round sheet of pate brisee over the pop-ring pan and press it into place. Roll a rolling pin over the rim of the pop-ring pan to trim off the excess dough. Place the tourtière d'abats filling in the pie shell. Fill the shell, so the filling is 1/8" from the top. brush the edge of the pie shell with egg wash. Drap the second round sheet of pate brisee over the pie. Press the top sheet of pate brisee onto the pie shell sheet. Trim the excess dough off with a knife. Press the crust, so it looks even and nice. Brush the top of the pie with egg wash. Cut 2 small steam vents on the center of the pie top. Cut a decorative shape out of the excess dough and place it on top of the pie. Brush the decorative shape with egg wash. Use the back of a knife to cut decorative slashes on the pie crust edge. Place the pie on a baking pan. Bake in a 350º oven, till the crust becomes a golden brown color. Allow the pie to cool to a safe serving temperature. Remove the pop-ring mold. Use a spatula to place the Tourtière d'abats on a plate. Sprinkle 2 pinches of minced Italian parsley on the plate.
As you can see in the picture above, this Tourtière d'abats is all offal and meat, with no excess liquid or gelatin thicken bouillon. Some liquid escaped through the pie vent holes, but that happens sometimes, especially when a pie is fill to the top. This is a heavy great tasting version of Tourtière d'abats! Yum! ... Shawna
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