Tourte de Noel

* Exported from MasterCook *

Tourte de Noel

Recipe By : The Canadiana Cookbook/Mme Jehane Benoit/1970
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Pies & Pastry Pork & Ham
Sent To Tnt

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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2 to 3 lbs very lean pork -- finely diced
4 sm onions -- chopped
4 cooked potatoes -- diced
1 1/2 to 2 tsp sage
1 tbsp savory
1 tbsp salt -- Yes, tablespoon!
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
Pastry:
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp lard
1 egg -- well beaten
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp savory
2 c all-purpose flour
6 to 8 tbsp ice water

Place the meat and onion in saucepan, with just enough water to barely
cover the meat. Cover and simmer 1 hour. Add the cooked potatoes, sage,
savory, salt and pepper. Simmer together 20 minutes.

Make a ball of the butter and flour. Add to meat juice and cook until sauce
is creamy. Taste for seasoning, then cool. Pour into pastry-lined baking
dish and cover with top crust. Bake at 400 degrees F until golden brown.
This tourte also freezes well.

Pastry: Cream together the butter and the lard. Stir in the eggs, salt and
sage. Mix well and work in the flour with your hands. Sprinkle half the
water on top and blend; then add the rest of the water, enough to make the
dough cling together. Do not overwork the pastry nor make it too wet. Roll
out as thinly as possible on a floured board and line the bottom and sides
of a round baking dish. Refrigerate until ready to use.

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NOTES : The pastry for the tourte is very special, and different from the
tourtiere type. It is rich, flaky, light and always flavored with savory.
In the old days, wild savory was gathered in the autumn and hung on the
kitchen rafters to dry until Christmas. The tourte is quite different from
the tourtiere.