Globe-cooking recipe : Tourtière with Apple/Cranberry Compote (Canada/Quebec)

One of the recipes in this month's Canadian-themed Kitchen Trotter box was for tourtière, which is a meat and vegetable pie from Quebec, the French-speaking part of Canada.

I needed three ingredients from the box : dried cranberries, maple syrup and tourtière spices. 

If you want to try using your own spice stash, tourtière spice mix is a blend of garlic powder, dry mustard, cloves, onion granules, pepper and salt.

Tourtière with Apple/Cranberry Compote

ingredients :

1 pack ready-made shortcrust pastry (or make your own but I was in a rush !)

600g minced beef

400g sausagemeat

3tbsp tourtière spice mix (or equivalent)

1/2tsp salt

3 medium potatoes

2 carrots

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

a little milk or egg wash

2 Golden Delicious apples

100g dried cranberries

2tbsp maple syrup

250ml water

Put the two meats in a large bowl with the salt and spices. Peel and finely dice the potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic and add to the bowl. Stir with a spoon then get your hands in there to really mix it up well.

The proper recipe uses pastry to line the pie dish then another sheet on top but I decided to use just the top part of the pastry to shave off a few calories ! Press the meaty filling into the pie dish and flatten with a spatula.

Put the pastry sheet on top and cut a small hole in the middle to let out the steam. Brush with a little milk or egg. Bake in the oven for an hour at 180°.

Meanwhile, prepare the apple and cranberry compote. Peel and chop the apples and put them in a saucepan with the dried cranberries, water and maple syrup. Cook on a low heat for 10-15 minutes until the fruit is soft and the water has mostly disappeared. Mash slightly with a fork and leave to cool.

 I served a slice of the pie with the apple and cranberry compote and some butternut squash with marshmallows. You could serve it with mashed potato and vegetables but I decided it was an all in one dish because they were already inside the pie. It's a very filling meal and the meat mixture stays together in one piece so it reminded me of a Quebec version of a Cornish pasty. 

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