There was a long line at the meat case this Saturday at the grocery store and I was standing with the crowd. I enjoyed asking everyone in line how they make ‘their’ Tortiere pie. I was in the company of experts - it’s a serious subject in Maine.
Tortiere is a meat and potato pie seasoned with sweet spices, similar in flavor and texture to a coarse country pate but made with potatoes as the binding agent instead of fatback and Tortiere is enrobed in a double crust.
One cute older couple told me they were making 20 pies. She told me, “we have the time to make tortiere pies for our family - they are too busy to make it for themselves.” It is the season to make Tortiere pie. It’s a French Canadian treasured recipe and tradition and everyone makes it differently.
Some will only make it with a lard crust - I save my saturated fat calories for something more spectacular. Some sweet little old gray haired ladies insist that the only way to properly make the filling is with finely minced meats, hand done. My family, meaning my mother’s side of the family always made it with ground pork and beef, equal weights. I make my pie with a butter crust - I am a ‘no lard or Crisco’ chick.
One of the simplest yet most rewarding pastry doughs in French cuisine is pâte à choux. Invented by an Italian chef who accompanied Catherine de' Medici to the French court on her marriage to the king, the recipe for pâte à choux has transformed many times over the centuries, but it now consists of milk or water, butter, flour, and eggs. The resulting multipurpose paste-like dough can be turned into many different treats, such as cream-filled profiteroles and eclairs, fried beignets, and gougères among many others. Gougères are the savory version made with cheese, traditionally gruyère. So it's simply a very French cheese puff that's light and airy-hollow on the inside and crisp and cheesy on the outside.
For some reason I have found myself in Scandinavian and Eastern European countries during the winter months and although the weather can be a bit frigid, the experience has always been memorable. Recent visits to Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Prague proved not only beautiful to see around the holidays, but each city also offered its own version of a warm libation to combat the cold temperatures – mulled wine.
I first tried this exotic guacamole a couple of years ago at my good friend Robert’s Christmas party. His mother was in town that year and helped prepare some most of the incredible food on the buffet table.
Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift that is easy, inexpensive, and loved by all?