[Sca-cooks] Favorite insides for hand held pies - recipes

[Micaylah]

> Well, I don't know about Micaylah's pocket tourtière, but if 
> you have a
> large baking dish, cover it with 1/2 an inch of dough, and 
> then add chopped
> meat of whatever variety you happen to have on hand - really, 
> we're not too
> fussy about our Tourtière - some even add in chopped 
> potatoes, I'm rather
> partial to this actually :-)

This sounds absolutely yummy Petru. Which part of Québec does your family
come from? I've tried lots of different types of Tourtiere, but I'm
certainly not an authority. :) Its interesting that you're not too fussy
about what goes in, I've seen that type of flexibility before. I sort of
fall into that category. My Mother would prolly slap me upside the head if I
ever put potato in my tourtiere, but I've had it with potato and its
awesome.

But my Grandmama was certainly fussy and the folks around Mattawa (Ont),
iirc, took great pains to all have the same-ish ground meat type of pies.
Hmmm, that's odd considering that that is prime Ontario hunting grounds.
Maybe there were game-snobs in Mattawa? Ahhh, but their Ragout D'boule (sp?)
is one of those comfort foods I recall very fondly.

> The spice list is about right (I've never seen the grains of 
> paradise in a
> tourtière before, but that's a rather neat idea), and why not 
> throw in a few
> laurel leaves with that?

I replaced the pepper, called for in the recipe, with the Gop's once (I ran
out of pepper!). It added a nice, different, peppery flavour. Depending on
the mood I'm in will determine what herbs/spices go in. And yes I use bay
leaves if my roving eyes see them. I've taken the original recipe and made
it my own.  <gasp>

I frequently substitute the pork with venison, preferring this version.
Simply put, they're Hart Tarts.

ttfn Micaylah

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Original Tourtière (all ingreds. are per lb of meat, 1 lb making one pie) 

1/2 cup Water
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp Savoury
1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
1 small Onion, chpd
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Thyme
Pepper to taste

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My Tweaked Meat Pies (plus whatever turns my fancy in the spice cupboard)
Makes 2 pies or 24 pasties
(best to use fresh herbs rather than dried)

1 lb ground Beef
1 lb ground Pork
1 cup liquid (apple juice, water, beer, wine or anything you can think of. I
prefer a red wine base cut with water, or beer.
1 medium Onion, chopped
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Savoury
½ tsp Thyme
¼ tsp ground Cloves
1 tsp whole Grains of Paradise
Pepper to taste

Pastry for 2 covered pies

Grind grains of paradise and heat all ingredients in large stock pot. Cook
several hours to blend flavours, skimming fat/scum off. At this point it is
best to refrigerate overnight to draw fat to top and solidify. Skim again
the next morning. Strain meat through sieve. Place in pie shell and top,
making a ½” slit. Bake @ 450º for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

If you are doing luncheon hand-helds:
Cut 7-8" rounds out of your pastry and put filling in center and flip like a
pop-over making sure you put a little water on the edges to seal and pinch.
I have several sizes of plastic turnover gizmos where you lay the round of
pastry, add filling, flip, squeeze, trim, and bake. Great for when you're
making 100's!

This pie freezes well. If you do freeze, bring oven to 350º and cook one
hour making sure pie goes from freezer to oven without thawing.

Can be eaten warm or cold. If I am camping and I want them warm, I just heat
them up either near the fire or in a frying pan.