HOMEY FRENCH CHRISTMAS FAVOURITES
‘My heart really lies in my own kitchen,’ author and pastry chef Courteau says
TOURTIÈRE DU LAC-SAINT-JEAN
Serves: 15-20
■ 2 batches pie dough, each made separately (recipe follows)
■ 5 lb (2.25 kg) meat, cubed ( beef, pork, chicken, or game)
■ 2 large onions, diced
■ 8 cups (2 L) beef stock
■ 1 bay leaf
■ 2 tbsp (30 ml) soy sauce
■ 1 tbsp (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce
■ 1 tbsp (15 ml) garlic powder
■ 2 tbsp (30 ml) onion powder
■ 2 tbsp (30 ml) dried parsley
■ 2 tsp (10 ml) celery salt
■ 1 tsp (5 ml) paprika
■ 2 1/2 tbsp (37.5 ml) salt
■ 1 tbsp (15 ml) ground black pepper
■ 10 lb (4.5 kg) potatoes, cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) cubes
■ 1 large egg white
■ 1 tsp cream or milk
1. Mix the meat and onions together in a bowl. Cover and leave to marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Place the beef stock and bay leaf in a pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
3. Let it boil to reduce it by half, until there are about 4 cups (1 L) of stock left. Remove and discard the bay leaf and stir in the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Set aside to cool.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, celery salt, paprika, salt and pepper. Set aside.
5. Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). Roll out one batch of dough into a circle or oval, depending on the shape of your 15-inch (38-cm) roasting pan, about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick.
6. Line the roasting pan with the dough, taking care to push it into every corner. Patch any holes with small pieces of dough. Let the excess dough hang over the sides of the dish.
7. Spread one-third of the potatoes over the bottom of the dish. Top with half of the meat and sprinkle over half of the powdered spice mix. Repeat the same layering again. Finish with a final layer of potatoes. It will seem like a lot of meat and potatoes to fit into the roasting pan. Even packing it down a bit, I am sometimes left with a bit of extra potato that doesn’t quite fit.
8. Roll out the second batch of pie dough and cover the tourtière with it. Using scissors, trim any excess dough around the sides, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) overhanging.
9. Working around the entire edge of the pan, snugly tuck the dough under itself to form a sealed rim. Using a fork or your fingers, crimp the dough to create a decorative edge.
10. Make a 1-inch (2.5-cm) vent hole in the centre of the dough and pour in the beef stock. This hole is very important to let steam out while the tourtière is baking.
11. Whisk together the egg white and cream. Generously brush it over the edges and top of the pie.
12. Bake the tourtière for 1 hour at 425 F (220 C). Cover the top loosely with aluminum foil, cutting a hole in the centre to let the steam escape. Turn your oven down to 350 F (180 C) and bake for another hour. Reduce the temperature to 275 F (135 C) and bake for another 4-5 hours.
This tourtière is best eaten warm out of the oven, but it makes for good leftovers for up to five days if kept in the refrigerator.
Note: The total baking time for the tourtière is 6-8 hours until the potatoes are soft. You can check this by poking a knife into the vent hole. There might still be lots of liquid bubbling up when it’s ready to come out of the oven. Let the tourtière rest at room temperature for
20-30 minutes before serving. When you first cut into it, there might be a substantial amount of liquid. This is normal — as it starts to cool, it turns into a delicious gravy.
EASY MIXER PIE DOUGH
Makes: Three 9-inch (23-cm) pie shells or one covered or lattice-top pie plus an extra pie shell.
■ 4 cups (1 L) all-purpose flour
■ 1 cup (250 ml) unsalted butter, in 1/2-inch (1.25-cm) cubes, cold
■ 1 cup (250 ml) vegetable shortening, in 1/2-inch (1.25-cm) cubes, cold
■ 1 tsp (5 ml) salt
■ 1 cup (250 ml) ice water
1. Place the flour, butter, shortening and salt in a stand mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until the fats are in small chunks and the mixture looks a bit dry. This should only take 10-15 seconds.
2. If you overmix, you run the risk of turning your mixture into a dough and then you’ll have a difficult time incorporating all the water into it in the next step.
3. Add the ice water all at once and mix on medium speed until the dough just comes together. Some small lumps of fat should remain in the dough.
4. Shape the dough into 2 flattened balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, making sure the dough is fully chilled before rolling out.
5. At this point the dough can be frozen. Let it thaw completely before using it, but when you roll it out, be sure it’s still cold.
Note: Pie dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two days or in the freezer for up to six months.
Giselle Courteau’s oven, a pearly AGA Legacy, represents not just the heart of her kitchen, but the hub of her entire Edmonton home.
A photo of it — gleaming ash, surrounded by marble — is among the first in her new book, Duchess at Home (Appetite by Random House, 2019).
“We spend a lot of time in our kitchen and that AGA is definitely the centre of our life,” Courteau laughs.
It’s only fitting that a reflection on her return to home cooking should bring readers into her kitchen in more ways than one.
The co-founder of Duchess Bake Shop (and offshoots Little Duchess and Duchess Atelier) and Café Linnea, all in Edmonton, Courteau went from baking at home to running a professional kitchen “overnight.”
It was the realization of a dream, something that was evident in her debut, Duchess Bake Shop (Appetite by Random House, 2015), which featured some of the bakery’s most popular French-inspired recipes. In contrast, her followup captures the spirit of what originally took hold of her imagination, home baking.
“I am really a home baker. That’s who I am. Sure, I’ve worked in a professional bakery for 10 years, but my heart really lies in my own kitchen,” says Courteau, adding that she feels honoured to be able to dedicate a book to her personal favourites.
“Each chapter is a meaningful part of my life and I hope that people get to know me a little bit more as a person and a baker.”
If there’s such a thing as a natural-born baker, a Polaroid of Courteau at age three — hands stuck in dough, arms covered in flour to the elbows and grinning from ear to ear — is surely evidence that she’s found her life’s purpose. The realities of being a small-business owner, though, meant she essentially stopped baking for pleasure during the bakery’s early years.
Now, no longer working fulltime in the bake shop kitchen, she’s able to spend more time in her own — a shift she channelled into Duchess at Home.
Whether baking long-established family favourites or newly developed recipes, Courteau wanted to explore the importance of her Franco-albertan heritage and offer homey French baking (both of which play out in the accompanying recipes, which are beloved Christmas traditions for Courteau’s family).
As with her previous book, there are detailed, step-by-step procedure shots accompanying more-involved dishes, and the recipes — in chapters devoted to Sunday Afternoons, La Belle France and Christmas — are introduced by Courteau’s tips for becoming a better baker.
She regards baking as an opportunity for lifelong learning, an attitude that colours her advice and recipes with a sense of encouragement, humility and understanding.
As adept a baker as she is, Courteau emphasizes that whenever she steps into the kitchen, she gains knowledge.
“If you’re five years old or 95 years old, every time you get in the kitchen, you have something to learn. That’s the beautiful part of having it as a hobby. I’m still learning things absolutely every day. Every time I write a recipe and I delve into it, I learn things. That’s the fun part for me. Baking is never stale,” she laughs.