Tortiere: AKA Meat Pie

This is an English Canadian meat pie, in other words not a traditional french meat pie. It receives it inspirations from the classic French Canadian dish, however the flavourings and ingredients are more of what I was feeling that day rather than the traditional beef, pork, onion, celery and herbs. None the less the flavours are great. It is amazing how you can transform a dish just by adding the pie crust. The crust I used is from Grandma was frozen and turned out wonderful.

The Recipe: English Canadian Meat Pie (Tortiere)

1 lb of dark ground chicken
1 lb of dark ground turkey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red pepper diced
1 large onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
10 medium button mushrooms
15 quartered cherry tomatoes
1/4 fresh chopped parsley
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Couple dash of hot sauce
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup of chicken stock
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 tbsp butter

Bring a large saute pan to high heat, add the olive, chicken, turkey and cook until no longer pink on the outside. Remove from the and place in a bowl. Drain the liquid from the meat back into the pan and add the rep pepper and saute for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the onions and continue cooking for another 3 minutes continuing to stir. Add the mushrooms, garlic and continue to stir until the mushrooms have reduced down somewhat (about 4 minutes), add the tomatoes Worcester, sea salt, pepper, hot sauce and continue cooking for about 5 minutes until tomatoes have lost most of there form. Add the meat back into the pan with the parsley and let cook for 5 minutes. In a small sauce pan heat the stock for a couple minutes until hot. In a bowl combine the butter and flour and blend until even (buerre manie). Whisk the hot stock into the buerre manie until smooth, add the mixture to pan and stir (this will help thicken any moisture in the pie while cooking, create more flavour and keep the crust from getting soggy).

Add the meat mixture to the pie crust and cover with another pie crust (I used 2 pre-made bottom crusts from the freezer) crimping the edges together with your fingers. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Melt your additional 2 tbsp of butter and paint the top of the pie to help it turn a beautiful golden brown in the oven. Cut a slit in the top to allow any trapped steam to escape. Cook for 25 minutes, remove and Enjoy!
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Green Bean and Tomato Salad

This may be my first actual vegan recipe I ever made, at least since I started blogging (butter, cheese or eggs always seems to get in the way of any other vegan meals). It tastes great too! The key is having beautiful fresh tomatoes and beans. Starting with great produce makes it hard to mess up, but adding a few key ingredients really makes all the flavours pop and brings something a little special to a plate of green beans. The Tomatoes are sunsugar tomatoes and they are from my father's garden. They are super and sweet and need to be left raw to truly enjoy their flavours!

The Recipe: Green Bean and Sunsugar Tomatoes Salad

We split this salad among 4 of us but it would be great for 2 people looking for a larger salad.
20 sunsugar tomatoes quartered(you can use any type of grape or cherry tomato)
40 green beans chopped in half
1/3 cup of fresh roughly chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of aged balsamic (the good stuff)
pinch of sea salt
pinch of fresh ground pepper
Dash of hot sauce

Steam the green beans on the stove until tender, about 7-8 minutes. Remove the beans and cool under cold water for 10 seconds and dry. In a bowl combine all ingredients, toss and enjoy!
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