HUMBLE ACADIAN CLASSICS
Homey comfort food sustained Canada’s earliest settlers, Laura Brehaut discovers.
RÂPURE (RAPPIE PIE)
Serves: 4-6 4 lb (1.8 kg) whole chicken, preferably a stewing hen
10 lb (4.5 kg) potatoes, peeled 2 medium onions, minced 3-4 carrots, diced
2 tbsp (30 mL) oil or butter 12 cups (3 L) cold water
(or enough to cover chicken in the pot)
2 bay leaves
4 tbsp (60 mL) minced salt pork (optional)
2 tbsp (30 mL) salted green onions, plus additional 2 tsp (10 mL; optional, see note) Salt and pepper to taste
1. The first thing to do is make the chicken stock. This can be done the day before. In a pot large enough to accommodate your chicken, sauté onions in the butter (or oil) until translucent. Add 1 tsp (5 mL) of salted green onions if you have them. If not, add a bit of salt to onions to help them sweat.
2. Add chicken and cover with cold water, about 12 cups (3 L). Add the bay leaves and carrots. Cover the pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to keep the bird at a gentle simmer. Cook for about 1 hour or until meat is almost falling off the bone, but not quite.
3. Remove the chicken from the pot and strain the stock through a sieve. (At this point you can refrigerate your stock until you need it or just keep it warm if you plan on making the rappie pie at the same time.)
4. Shred the chicken into small pieces, discarding the bones and skin. Set aside.
5. Grate your potatoes on a box grater or rasp. Take your time or you’ll end up with bloody knuckles. (Alternatively, you can use a juicer to simultaneously pulverize your potatoes and remove much of the water. The texture will be mildly different, but highly comparable.)
6. Place portions of the rasped/ grated potato into muslin or kitchen towels. Squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. You will be adding stock to it afterward and you want to get out as much of the liquid as possible. Tip: Squeeze the potatoes into a large measuring bowl. Let’s say you squeeze out 7 1/2 cups (1.75 L) of potato water, you should add back in about 10 cups (2.5 L) of stock. This is the ratio you’re trying to achieve. Adjust accordingly.
7. Bring the stock to a rolling boil. You need it to be as hot as possible to scald potatoes.
8. Heat oven to 425 F (220 C). Put the potatoes into a large bowl, big enough to accommodate at least twice its volume. (If you don’t have a bowl big enough, do this in batches, making sure to keep your stock as hot as possible for scalding the potatoes.) Break up the potatoes using a hand mixer.
9. Mix in half of the hot stock using a hand mixer and stir it all together, making sure to moisten the potatoes as much as possible. Mix in the rest of the hot stock and keep stirring. The mixture will thicken, but keep stirring for about 2-3 minutes after adding the last of the stock. Taste for seasoning, adding salt, pepper and the salted green onions as you go.
10. Pour enough of the potato pulp to cover the bottom of your casserole dish. Add roughly 1/2 of your chicken, tossing it over the potatoes. Add enough potatoes to just cover the chicken, and then add more chicken, finally covering that with the rest of the potatoes.
11. Place pie in oven. Bake at 425 F (220 C) for 30 minutes and then turn down the heat to 375 F (190 C) and bake for another
1 1/2 to 2 hours. Occasionally baste the top with butter (or small dice of salt pork) to help brown the crust. The dish is ready when the crust on the top is set and golden brown.
12. Serve warm with butter or a little molasses on the side.
Note: To make salted green onions, chop off the roots and roughly chop the green onions. Salt well to cover, mix and then add more salt and mix again. Let sit overnight in a cool place. The next day, salt heavily again, pack into Mason jars and close the lids. To preserve their colour, store them in the freezer. They will last for up to a year. “I’ve often joked about the fact that Acadian cuisine is very homey and occasionally, a little homely,” Simon Thibault says.
Dishes such as râpure (rappie pie) — a casserole made with potatoes, meat, onions and stock — are comforting and humble.
From salting green onions to create a fresh and bright condiment that could be relied on during harsh winters to slaughtering pigs each fall for boudin ( blood sausage), these are time-honoured techniques that arose out of necessity, Thibault writes.
In his first book, Pantry and Palate, the Halifax-based writer documents Acadian food traditions.
Thibault says that in doing so, he felt a keen sense of responsibility to encourage both the continuation and preservation of the foodways of some of Canada’s earliest settlers.
He recalls a speaking engagement in his hometown of Pointede-l’Église, N.S., where he asked for a show of hands: how many remembered eating boudin as a staple? How many still ate it? How many knew how to make it?
“There was maybe one hand left … And that’s fine (if you don’t want to eat blood pudding), but you’re looking at your heritage, first and foremost, disappearing,” Thibault says. “And it’s not just a highfalutin kind of fun thing of, ‘Well, we grew up eating this.’ No, this is really your heritage.”
In the book, he showcases 50 recipes for well-loved Acadian classics — chicken fricot, seafood chowder, fring frangs (potato pancakes) and molasses cakes — and provides context on how these dishes originated and evolved over time.
From the French settlers of the 17th and 18th centuries, exchanges with Indigenous populations, to le grand dérangement (17551764) and the resulting Acadian diaspora, he started with his own family’s kitchen notebooks and expanded outward. “The core of our lives is based around food. The things that sustain us the most are the things that chase us back to our past.”