Tourtière - a French Canadian staple!

As we get deeper into fall and the weather is cooling off, I get the urge to cook homy dishes from my childhood. In this season and all throughout the winter months in Quebec, tourtière is certainly a favorite. We also have it over the Holidays, and I clearly remember smelling the cooking and looking forward to our Christmas eve feast, which always included tourtière.
It's a meat pie made mainly with ground pork and onion, and seasoned with allspice, clove, and/or nutmeg. I also remember adding the recipe to my little cookbook, as my mom was explaining each step - the same way her own mom always made it. So here is our family recipe for French Canadian Tourtière, and the crust!

French Canadian Tourtière

Filling:
In a thick pot, brown 4lb of lean ground pork, making sure to crumble it well (a potato masher works well). Add 5 big onions finely diced, and keep cooking, stirring regularly until the onions are also cooked. Add salt and pepper, allspice and/or ground clove and/or ground nutmeg - to taste (don't over season it though...). Add one large potato, peeled and diced, and enough water to almost cover the meat mixture. Stir, reduce the heat and simmer on low heat for about 4 hours, stirring regularly.
The ultimate test to know when the meat is ready is when the onions and potatoes have completely disappeared, and you can see the bottom of the pot when you push the meat sideways with a wooden spoon (no runny liquid). Taste again and add more spices if needed.

Crust:
Mix 3 cups of flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix in 1 cup of fat (butter is yummy) until you get a coarse texture, and add 1 cup of milk. Mix until you get a nice sticky dough texture. Separate into 4 balls. Roll the dough and line 2 round pie plates/pans, fill with the meat (heaping a little is nice), cover with the other rolled dough. Poke the pies with a fork of a knife to let the steam escape. Cook at 375F for about 20 minutes, or until golden.

Tourtière is delicious with pretty much any home made ketshup or sweet pickeled veggies. Also very nice with a green salad of your choice.

Enjoy!