Eat, Drink and be Merry!

The Christmas Holidays, being the most joyful holiday of all, call for excellent food and special treats! I love cooking for Christmas and hosting parties. I feel like it's the best occasion to showcase chic and entertaining recipes that will wow everyone. If you haven't noticed yet, when it comes of my cooking, I love the attention! I take a lot of pride in what I do and I'm very thankful when people notice!

For Christmas dinner, I like to go the traditional route. But sometimes tradition has to be adapted when, for example, one of your guests does not eat poultry. So this year, I will be making a Mustard Rosemary Prime Rib Roast with Garlic Brie Mashed Potatoes and some Christmassy salad with pomegranate. Although this is not the traditional turkey dinner, Prime Rib is known to be the best substitute to turkey for the holiday season.

But in order to keep a little bit of tradition, I'm still going to make my meat pie (or tourtière) and this is the recipe I will be sharing with you today. It is inspired by Anna Olsen's recipe.

You will need:

Crust

·         2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
·         1/2 teaspoon fine salt
·         1/2 cup unsalted butter
·         1/2 cup vegetable shortening
·         2 tablespoons lemon juice
·         6 to 10 tablespoons cold water (as needed)

Filling

·         1 1/2 pounds ground pork, veal, beef or combination
·         2 onions, diced
·         1 medium carrot, peeled and finely diced
·         2 celery stalks, finely diced
·         2 cloves of garlic, minced
·         3/4 teaspoon fine salt
·         1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
·         1 tablespoon crushed celery seed (or as much as you want...I love celery seeds!)
·       Allspice - as much as you want!
·       Ground cloves - same as Allspice, as much as you want
·       1 1/2 cup or more of apple cider or blond beer
·       1 egg mixed with 2 tablespoons of water for glazing

What to do:

Crust

1. Combine flour with salt. Cut in butter and shortening until mixture is a roughly even crumbly texture. Add lemon juice and water and blend until the dough comes together.
2. Shape into a disc, wrap and chill for 30 minutes. While pastry is chilling, prepare filling.

Filling

1.  In a large sauté pan or skillet, sauté beef, pork and/or veal over medium heat until no longer pink.  Drain off excess fat, add onions, carrots and seasonings and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes.
2. Add cider/beer and bring to a simmer. Let mixture simmer for about 15 minutes, until most of liquid is absorbed. If it does not completely evaporate, just drain the excess.
3. Preheat oven to 375 °F.
4. On a lightly floured surface, cut dough in half, roll out to just less than ¼-inch (.5 cm) thickness and line an 8-inch (20 cm) springform pan. Fill with tourtière filling.
5. Roll out remaining dough, cut a hole in center (for steam to escape) and place on top of filling. Pinch edges of crust together and brush with egg wash. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until pastry is a rich golden brown.

So in my version, I don't add any binding agent for the meat, but if you would like, you can add potatoes to bind the meat. For this you will need 1 1/2 cups diced, peeled potatoes that you will cook and mash to add the meat mixture.

Some people love their tourtière with ketchup, but my husband and I prefer to have it with homemade cranberry sauce. Simply follow the recipe on a package of fresh cranberries and you will have a great sauce that is also good with turkey.

This is a classic that I make every year, it's very easy to double, triple or even quadruple. I get together with some friends and we have Tourtière Day. We make a bunch of them and freeze some (uncooked)  so we have reserves for the entire year. That way, when I don't know what to make for dinner, I take one out of the freezer and cook it. That simple!

On that note, I wish you all the best for this Holiday Season and we shall all meet again in 2013 and share more fabulous recipes.

 

 

Spaghetti Sauce - Everyone has one!

Every family has one.  It's the "go-to" for a quick fix.  Often frozen or in a Mason jar, spaghetti sauce is always ready for a meal, especially when you don't know what to do for dinner.  For years I tried to make a good spaghetti sauce, but it turned out not as thick as I would have liked and tasted different every time. Well, that all changed two years ago!

It was a few weeks before Christmas and I went to my friend Annie's for dinner and she served me her spaghetti sauce.  OMG it was like a revelation.  It was what the foodie in me had been waiting for years.  It was sweet, savory and spicy, it was rich and thick.  A lot of flavour, but nothing too complex.  I had to have this recipe and being the great friend that she is, she gave it to me.  Since then, I've made this sauce many times and I even gave some to friends. I was able to consistently get it to taste the same and everyone always seems to enjoy it.  Annie confessed that she was stuck like me, without a great spaghetti sauce and that she had found this one online.  So I can't quote the primary source for the recipe, but I will share it with you since it would be a crime not to.  This will yield about 10 cups of sauce.  You can freeze it or store it in Mason jars.

You will need:

- 1/4 cup of vegetable oil (or any oil you want)
- 2 large onions, diced
- 1 large green bell pepper (I prefer red)
- 4 carrots, cut in small pieces
- 4 celery stalks, cut in small pieces
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 can of 284 ml of sliced mushrooms (you can use fresh)
- 2 lbs of ground beef
- 1 small can (156 ml) of tomato paste
- 2 cans (796 ml) of diced tomatoes
- 1 can (284 ml) of tomato soup (like Aylmer or Campbell's)
- 1 can (540 ml) of tomato juice
- 1/2 tsp of each of the following: rosemary, marjoram, thyme, oregano, nutmeg, ground cinnamon, clove, salt and pepper.
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar (this is the secret ingredient!)

What to do:

Heat up the oil and all the chopped vegetables and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add the meat.

Once the meat is brown, add all the tomatoes (paste, tomatoes, sauce and juice), one at a time, stirring between each addition. Add the spices, stir and then add the sugar.

If you are cooking the sauce on the stove, bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer for four hours, stirring occasionally.  Keep the sauce uncovered.

I prefer to cook it in the oven at 250-300 F (125-150 C) for four hours and I stir every 30 to 45 minutes.  The first two hours, I keep the lid on the sauce, then remove it for the remaining two.

You will most definitely love this spaghetti sauce.  For a little kick, I add pepper flakes when I sauté the vegetables. In my house, we like it spicy!

Any time I serve spaghetti, I love to have a side of garlic bread to go with it. Here is my recipe, inspired by my husband's cousin Katelyn:

Melt some butter, then add minced garlic (as mush as you want, but one clove is generally enough!). Add black pepper and some dry parsley (optional).  Take a brush and brush the bread with the garlic butter mixture.  Before putting it in the oven, sprinkle a mix of Italian herbs on top of the bread.  Cook for 10 to 15 min in a 350 F (175 C) oven or until toasted to your liking.  You can add cheese halfway through the cooking if you like.  Let it melt for the remaining time.

So there you have it! Every family has a spaghetti sauce that is shared from generation to generation and this is mine that I am sharing with all of you.  Enjoy!