Tourtiere by Bibbety

Tourtiere (from the "Canadian Living Cookbook")

Pastry for double crust pie (9 or 10 inches). Traditionally, it is lard pastry.

1 1/2 lb. ground pork I onion chopped 2 cloves garlic minced 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp each pepper, dried thyme and savoury 1/4 tsp cloves 1/4 tsp allspice I small crumbled bay leaf 3/4 cup chicken stock

In skillet, brown pork, stirring with fork to break meat up finely and draining fat. Add onion, garlic, salt, and spices and saute further until onion is softened. Add stock. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cool.

Pour filling into prepared pastry lined pie plate. Cover with top crust, seal and flute edges. Cut a few slashes in crust to let steam escape. Bake in 425 oven for about 30 minutes, or until well browned.

Variations:

You can use a mixture of different types of meat. Obviously pork should predominate, but veal or beef can make up part of the mixture. I'm using half a pound of ground lean beef, for example.

The original recipe specified water as the liquid, but I find using stock give a real richness to the pie.

You can also vary the spices. It think though, it's important to have cloves and allspice.

I cut out little pastry stars for the top and do an egg wash.

You can also make tiny little tarts with this. The cookbook says this will make about seventy-two 1 1/4 inch tarts.