My favourite tourtiere is from the region of Monteregie. It’s a very simple recipe and I love to serve it at Christmas time. It makes a great lunch with a nice green salad and makes me feel very Canadian.
The filling is simply some minced pork, cinnamon, cloves, a little water, some breadcrumbs and then it’s all cooked up in a big pot and seasoned nicely with salt and pepper. I make my pie dough with lard. It’s also a simple recipe of 500 grams of pastry flour, 250 grams of lard, 200 ml of water and 20 gr of salt.
I mix the salt and flour and cut in the lard leaving large pie sized pieces of lard. I add the water all at once and then mix up the dough lightly using a folding motion. I roll the dough into a log and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. Then I cut off a chunk, flour it and start rolling.
I roll back and forth, never twisting my body, I move the dough a quarter turn every roll.
when the pie dough is about 1 inch larger than the pie pan I roll it up on the pin
then I unroll the pin over the pie pan
put in the filling, put a top on it and voila ready for the freezer. I cook them from frozen they take just over an hour.
This cake has no humble beginnings it is gourmet through and through starting with the filling. Cinnamon infused cream is used to make a caramel sauce and that luxurious hot caramel sauce is poured over rich semi sweet chocolate. the whole mixture is cooled and then whipped to decadent perfection.
Spread the ganache on layers of yummy buttermilk chocolate cake.
cover with chocolate glaze
add some chocolate curls
and put it all together
Combine the richness of butter, the nuttiness of hazelnuts and dip it in milk chocolate. Do I have to say more!
I can’t decide if I like these more than my Pecan Caramel Cookies. I brought these as a treat to Oraynu’s New Member Social and they went over verrrrryyy well.
Nothing says Christmas like whipped shortbread.
but sometimes when you need a good cookie for your tea an almond and craberry biscotti, dipped in chocolate, can be just the right thing.
are very important to me. Perhaps the most important thing is that every kid who ever made one will tell you about it. The memory of making gingerbread houses totally justifies the huge amount of time that you need to devote. Baking your own gingerbread leaves that spectacular aroma in your house for days.
I try my best not to orchestrate the appearance of the house. I should probably make my own next time
each house is unique and they are getting more and more elaborate as the kids’ fine motor skills become more developed. They last just til someone starts breaking pieces off of the roof and then that’s it they’re gone.
Published on December 17, 2008
in Class and Demo.
In late November we gave 6 demonstration cooking classes to Manulife Insurance. We were part of a wellness day for their staff. Our classes were:
Sushi
Dips and Spreads
Pressure Cooker Rissotto
Home Made Pasta
Caribbean Shrimp and Vegetable Soup
We repeated the sushi class at the end because it was oversubscribed at the beginning of the day. We spent our day in the boardroom in our make shift kitchen.
We used portable butane burners and taught up to 40 students at a time. Our classes were jammed packed with recipes and tips and I think that we really pushed the envelope when we made our own pasta, rolled it out, boiled up the ravioli and then served them with a sage and butter sauce.
It was truly a fun day and we hope to do it again soon.