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.