Pâté chinois
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Pâté chinois (pronounced: [pɑte ʃinwa]) is a French Canadian dish similar to English cottage pie, shepherd's pie or French hachis Parmentier. It is made from layered ground beef (sometimes mixed with sautéed diced onions) on the bottom layer, canned corn (either whole-kernel, creamed, or a mix) for the middle layer, and mashed potatoes on top. Variations may include sprinkling paprika on top of the potatoes, reversing the layering of ingredients, adding diced bell peppers to the ground beef, and serving the dish with pickled eggs or beets. Pâté chinois (French for "Chinese pie") is often consumed with ketchup mixed in.
[edit] Name origins
Pâté Chinois is not a Chinese recipe. It may simply be an adaption of "Shepherd's Pie", but one possible explanation for the 'Chinese' reference is that it was introduced to Canadian railway workers by Chinese cooks during the building of the North American railroads in the late 19th century[citation needed]. These cooks made it under instruction from the railway bosses (of English extraction) as an easily-prepared, inexpensive version of the popular cottage pie, with the sauce in the tinned creamed-corn serving as a substitute for the gravy. The French Canadian railway workers became fond of it and brought the recipe back with them to their home communities. From there it was brought to the textile mill communities of Maine (Lewiston), New Hampshire (Manchester), Massachusetts (e.g. Lowell and Lawrence) and Rhode Island (Woonsocket) where many French Canadians immigrated to work in the mills during the early 20th century. It may also be connected to the town of China, Maine.French in Quebec
[edit] Cultural references
In the Québécois humorous television program La Petite Vie, pâté chinois is used to show one of the character's abysmal lack of common sense as she regularly fails to properly prepare it, for example, by laying the three ingredients side by side instead of layering them, or forgetting to mash the potatoes.
[edit] References
- www.whats-cooking.ca articlePeople from Quebec some makes their layer as of 1st potatoes at bottom,then meat ,then top with cream corn to make the potatoes juicier .This way the potatoes absorb all the juices.
