French Canadian Tourtiere

Name: Potato & Cheese Pie
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 4 min
Ingredients: 700g waxy new potatoes, peeled and sliced (2 pounds); 2 large free range eggs; 275ml whole milk (9 1/2 fluid ounces); 125g grated cheese (generous cup, I use Parmesan and Cheddar); salt and black pepper; 1 small onion, peeled and chopped; a handful of cooked sliced green beans

Saturday, 19 December 2020

One tradition that my family has always enjoyed every Christmas is that of making a traditional French Canadian Tourtiere. It just would not be Christmas without it. There are actually two kinds of tourtiere and this is the more common one which I am sharing with you today.

Traditionally it would be served for Reveillon. This was a Christmas supper that would be served in French Canadian homes after church on Christmas Eve.

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Potato & Cheese Pie

Friday, 18 December 2020

This dish I am showing you today is a fabulous vegetarian main dish, filled with lovely flavours and textures. this is always assuming that you still eat eggs and cheese.

If not, well, then I can't help you! This tasty one dish supper makes good use of leftover cooked potato. You can also cook potatoes fresh to use in it.

True confessions here, I have also used tinned new potatoes, drained well and sliced into rounds. They worked quite well. I usually have a few tins of new potatos in the cupboard.

Did you know that new potatoes are fairly low GI? It's true and when you combine the with a fat (cheese) and a protein (egg) you lower the GI even more.

When combined with a slice of whole wheat bread and some salad, that makes this quite a diabetic-friendly meal. I am always trying to lower my GI if I can.

As a diabetic, it can be really difficult to balance your diet, especially if you live with others who are not diabetics. My father is also a diabetic so we are both in the same boat.

You can leave it just as it is, with just the potatoes, onions and cheese. You can also amp it up a bit by adding some other vegetables to it.

I add cooked green beans to add a small portion of your five a day, and to add some colour.You could add any cooked vegetable you enjoy. This adds interest, texture and colour.

My friend Jacquie used to make a potato pie that was absolutely gorgeous. It had plenty of green beans in it. I lost the recipe after I moved over to the UK.

The last time I e-mailed her, my e-mail bounced back. I will have to contact her daughter on Instagram to see if there is a new e-mail address I can contact her with. I really hate losing touch with good friends. She is actually just living down the road from me now.

I seem to recall she also used filo pastry in hers as a crust.

I always called Jacquie my White Angel because she had beautiful white hair, just like a shining gossamer halo. She was so good to me when my previous marriage broke up and I was on my own. She was a wonderful friend, along with her husband Tom.

I could not have asked for two more loving and supportive friends. They are just two very special people. Tom was a vegetarian and Jacquie practiced the art of food combining. She was an iridologist, reflexologist, and herbologist and was very good at all three.

I think that she is the one and only friend I have ever allowed access to my feet. This says a lot. I have a thing about my feet.

If you have never been to a reflexologist, you really need to treat yourself sometime! You will feel like a million bucks afterwards, truly!

Jacquie always told me that all disease starts in the bowel. She could look at your eyes and see what was wrong with your organs, etc. She was a really special gal and very good at what she did.

Her home always smelled wonderful, like herbs and garlic. I loved Jacquie, being in her home, her potato pie, and I loved her Tofu Burgers. They were very tasty as well.

But back to this delicious casserole. You could serve it as a side if you wanted to and it would serve more people. I cannot think of anything it wouldn't go with. Being Friday, I think grilled fish would go well.

As a main, however, it serves 4 to 6 depending on appetities. It really has fabulous flavours . . . and yet it is so simple.

Cheese, onions, potatoes, and green beans are layered up in a dish. A seasoned milk and egg mixture is poured over top.

It doesn't get much easier than that. Really simple. We are going to be eating so much rich food over the next couple of weeks, simple just fits the bill for now. We are resting before the Christmas onslaught!

You bake it, covered, for about 20 minutes or so, uncover it and give it a stir and then bake it for another 20 or 25 minutes, until all of the flavours have melded and the custard has set properly.

It is almost like a baked potato and cheese omelet. I think personally that it is very, very good. If you are looking for somehing simple and yet very tasty, you really can't go wrong with this.

I always really enjoyed the way the British called any kind of layered casserole a pie. They didn't really call them casseroles, unless they involved stewed meat. Then it might be casseroled beef, etc. That was a casserole to them.

Anything layered like this was called a pie. It didn't have to have a crust. It was just a layered bake.

I suppose every country has its own quirks and ways of doing things. That is what I love most about travel and about different cultures.

I love to learn and embrace new things, and this was one that I personally loved. But then I am a foodie.

Potato & Cheese Pie

Yield: 4 - 6 as a Vegetarian main

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 15 Mincook time: 50 Mintotal time: 1 H & 5 M

Simple and delicious. Serve warm with fresh bread, sliced tomatoes and a salad.

Ingredients

700g waxy new potatoes, peeled and sliced (2 pounds)
2 large free range eggs
275ml whole milk (9 1/2 fluid ounces)
125g grated cheese (generous cup, I use Parmesan and Cheddar)
salt and black pepper
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
a handful of cooked sliced green beans

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Parboil the potatoes for about 5 minutes in lightly salted boiling water. Drain well, and cool slightly. (Alternatively use leftover cooked new potatoes, peeled and sliced.)
Butter an oven-proof dish. Layer in the potato, grated cheese, onion and greenbeans alternately, ending with a layer of cheese.
Beat together the eggs and milk, seasoning lightly with salt and black pepper. Pour this mixture over the potatoes and cheese in the dish. Cover tightly with a buttered sheet of foil.
Cook in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Uncover and stir the potatoes from the outside to the centre. Cook, uncovered for a further 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @marierayner5530 on instagram and hashtag it #EnglishKitchen

Created using The Recipes Generator

This really makes for a lovely light supper. We have it with buttered whole wheat bread and a mixed salad on the side. I love the supersalad salad greens which have baby kale, rocket, spinach and baby chard in them, along with shredded beetroot. They are fabulous. I hope you will give this a go!

This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!

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Date & Raisin Squares

Thursday, 17 December 2020

I confess one of my favourite things is Date Squares. My mother always made us Date Squares at Christmas! They were a once a year treat!

My father loves raisin pie. This delicious recipe for Date & Raisin Squares combines both of those loves into one delicious, buttery, crumbly, fruit filled bar!

I love these tea cups of my mother's. They have only ever rarely been used. I am not sure what the patten is. There are no real markings on the bottom of the cups/saucers. I tend to think that my mother collected them from washing powder, but I could be wrong.

The pink rose buds on the side of the cups are very dainty and pretty. I remember my mother using them very occasionally when she had some friends over for tea, which was not very often. Mom wasn't the entertaining kind really.

She was an immaculate housekeeper and I think she just felt that she didn't have the time. I know she was never one for having people over for coffee or for going there. She wanted company when she wanted company. I get that.

I like to entertain, but I also like it mostly on my own terms. I can remember when I lived in Calgary, my next door neighbor would land on my doorstep at about 8 in the morning and she would stay all day. I didn't know how to get her to go home. Not really my cup of tea, that kind of life.

I could never do that to anyone myself. People's time is precious to them, and I think that stopping at someone's all day without being invited is a huge imposition. Tell me I'm not wrong in thinking that!

I hate to think I am the only one who feels that way. I hope I am not anti-social. I am just a person who likes to choose when I have or don't have company.

This recipe comes from a cookery book entitled Classic Canadian Cookery, by Elizabeth Baird. I have had my copy for a very long time. Its not a large book and I managed to slip it into my suitcase when I came back to Canada.

Its a great little book. I purchased mine used a number of years ago, but I also remember taking it out of the library when I was really young and copying some of the recipes out of it into a notebook.

It contains 300 + recipes. They are largely based on the fresh ingredients we have available here in Canada, and it is also seasonal in nature.

Its marked into sections, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I love seasonal cooking. I had quite a few seasonal cookbooks in my collection. Oh how I am missing my cookbooks.

I apologise in advance for my photos today. I had to cut the square a bit before I should have done. Ideally you should wait until they are quite cold. I would even leave them to set overnight bfore cutting them for the best presentation.

But I was running out of light and I pride myself on presenting new content to you most days. So in my eagerness, I did cut into them a bit sooner than I should have done.

These are fabulous, presenting to the lucky imbiber, the best of both worlds. You get the incredibly short and buttery sweet and oaty crust.

Like a buttery, brown sugar oat cookie. Crumbly, sweet . . . buttery and moreishly tasty.

The filling is magnificent. Sweet and sticky. Caramel flavoured from the dates, almost sticky toffee-puddingish . . .

Then that stick toffee richness is studded with plump sweet raisins. I do so love raisins. Especially in baking. Dates too!

The filling is flavoured with a bit of freshly grated nutmeg and some freshly grated lemon zest. Oh how I miss my microplane . . .

There is also lemon juice in the filling which helps to cut some of the sweetness. Lemon and raisins go very well together. So do lemon and dates.

It is absolutely beautiful sandwiched between that beautiful crumbly, buttery crust. Incredibly delicious I would say.

I can see squares of this served warm with scoops of vanilla ice cream on top . . . the warmth of the square causing the ice cream to melt and run down in little sweet rivers of lushness, into the nooks and crannies.

You can cut it into small squares when cold and serve it with lovely hot cups of tea. It would be beautiful on a tea table for the ladies. I did so love giving tea parties.

I wonder will I ever be able to give them again. I left all of my china and stuff behind in the UK, the beautiful antique china tiered servers for sweets and sandwiches. My trays. Must not think about it.

Life just isn't fair sometimes. But we have to deal with it and count our blessings where we find them. I am grateful that I had the time to use them while I did, and I hope that they are now likewise serving someone else in much the same way.

And that they find joy in their use. That thought brings me a small measure of comfort. It really does.

I feel like I really need to change the focus of my blog now that I am back in Canada. I have worked so hard to make The English Kitchen a place of comfort and of good food. But the original focus was on presenting "British Cookery" in a way that people could enjoy and understand it.

I know I can still do the same thing, but I am just wondering how I can do it without people thinking I am a charlatan. Misrepresenting things.

It would be incredibly sad to me however to lose what I have worked so hard to build. Not after I have already lost everything else. I will need to come to some compromise between the two and then hope that my faithful readers don't desert me.

I have my thinking cap on. I know that the book I had written and was waiting for publication I am going to shelve now. It hardly seems credible to present a book that was based on 20 years of lies without completely re-writing it and I don't think I have the heart to do it at the moment.

In the meantime, lets eat some delicious buttery,crumbly, oaty, sweet fruity squares.

Date & Raisins Squares

Yield: Makes one 9-inch square cake, ready to cut into squares

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 1 H & 15 Mcook time: 45 Mintotal time: 2 Hour

A little bit different than the usual Date Square in that the filling also includes sticky sweet raisins. With its lush filling and that buttery oatmeal crumb crust this always goes down a real treat.