Cookbook:Tourte à la Lorraine

| French cuisine

Tourte à la Lorraine is an elaborate meat pie with a pâte brisée (pie dough) base and a puff pastry top which is baked. Ten minutes before the end of the baking period, a savoury egg-and-cream custard is poured through a hole in the pie crust and returned to the oven to set.

Ingredients

 * 4 oz puff pastry
 * 4 oz pie dough
 * 4 oz fresh pork, diced
 * 4 oz veal, diced
 * 1 cup Riesling wine
 * 2 shallots, chopped
 * 1 onion
 * 2 garlic cloves, minced
 * 2 bay leaves
 * 2 sprigs thyme
 * 4 cloves
 * Salt
 * Pepper
 * 4-spice powder
 * Parsley, chopped
 * ½ cup heavy cream
 * 1 whole egg
 * 1 egg yolk
 * Nutmeg

Procedure

 * 1) Combine the meat, Riesling, salt, pepper, 4-spice powder, shallots, garlic, onion, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, and cloves.
 * 2) Marinate for 48 hours.
 * 3) Preheat the oven to 400°F.
 * 4) Press the pie dough into a buttered and floured pie dish or cake pan lined with parchment paper.
 * 5) Place the meat on the pie dough leaving a narrow border all around the edge. Cover the meat with the puff pastry, taking care to moisten with a little water to glue the edges together.
 * 6) Brush the surface with egg yolk and make a small chimney in the middle (you may use a tube of cardboard covered with foil). Make a pleasing design on the surface of the pastry with a tip of a small knife.
 * 7) Bake in a hot oven for 45 minutes.
 * 8) During this time, beat the egg and yolk with the cream. Season with grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.
 * 9) Remove the pie from the oven and, with the help of a funnel, pour the cream mixture through the chimney. This operation is a bit delicate. One needs to add a little at a time and then tilt the pan to disperse the liquid throughout the pie.
 * 10) Return to the oven for 10 minutes.