It`s cheap, it feeds lots of people and everyone

Rappie Pie
“It’s cheap, it feeds lots of people and everyone likes it.”
story and photos by Jessica Patterson
by Marielle Boudreau-Cormier and Melvin Gallant, and, armed with glasses of
wine and Great Big Sea playing in the background, we went to work.
I coarsely grated five pounds of russet potatoes into long strands with my
four-sided box grater, and chopped two white onions and put them into a large
pot with a quartered chicken to make stock. While the stock was simmering, I
squeezed the juice out of the grated potatoes for all I was worth. They turned
pinkish brown, oxidizing like cut apples. Soon, the potato juice was brown too,
and a thick layer of starch coated the bottom of the bowl.
The next step was to reconstitute the potatoes with the chicken stock we’d been
simmering on the stove. I dumped my potatoes into the pot with the chicken and
stirred. The potatoes turned a sickly grey colour, but I persevered. I layered potatoes and chicken into a baking pan, according to the directions, then put the pan
in the oven. Two hours later, our finished rappie pie was grey, slimy and glutinous
– not what I remembered. My memories were of light, golden, chicken-flavoured
potatoes, with a creamy consistency.
As I found out from my Acadian friends in Calgary – Cindy Corriveau and her
mother Vel LeBlanc – rappie pies are as different from one another as the people
who make them. Corriveau grew up watching her parents make rappie pie.
Râpure was a traditional Christmas dish in her childhood home in Yarmouth.
“They started early on Christmas Eve day, and by the early evening, they put it in
the oven, went to mass, and ate it when they got home.”
These days, rappie pie is still served as a Christmas tradition in her house, and
Corriveau’s mother still makes it. LeBlanc has been making rappie pie since she
was old enough to help in the kitchen. “My mom made it all the time,” she says,
adding that her mother’s was much better then her own, with a beautiful golden
crust. “Everyone’s is different.”
After five years of living in Calgary, having had more beef on a
bun than I could stand, I recently found myself desperate for
a taste of home – specifically, for one of the dishes I ate with
abandon in my childhood. I wanted rappie pie. To my 10-yearold mind, it was chicken and potatoes, but there was something different about its slightly sticky consistency, something
reminiscent of Dad’s chicken pot-pie that made rappie pie one
of my favourite dishes. It was delicious comfort food.
Now, don’t raise your eyebrows – hear me out.
I grew up in the Land of Evangeline, also known as Nova Scotia’s Annapolis
Valley. There, Acadian culture is as alive today as it was in the early 1600s, when
the settlers from France first came ashore. In the counties of Clare, Digby and
Yarmouth, present-day descendants of those early Acadians still hold traditions
close, especially in the kitchen.
Rappie pie – pâté à la râpure or simply râpure – is the name of an Acadian dish of
grated raw potatoes mixed with meat and vegetables and baked. The protein part
might include rabbit, chicken, mussels, clams, pork, beef or venison. This savoury
dish has been popular throughout Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick for generations and is unique to that part of the country. In the French-speaking areas of
the Maritimes, each pocket of Acadian culture has its own unique variations.
Though rappie pie doesn’t exist in Calgary restaurants, the dish is alive and well in
some Calgarians’ kitchens.
This dish’s culinary origins are shrouded by the veil of time. Some say the concoction was a way of stretching the family’s meat supply. Others say it was a good
way to get copious amounts of starchy water (from the potatoes) for the week’s
laundry. No one really knew the origins of the dish – it’s simply a cultural mainstay
that’s been passed down through generations of Acadians.
Determined to revive childhood flavours by making a rappie pie, I asked my foodie
boyfriend to help. We found a recipe in an Acadian cookbook, A Taste of Acadie
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CITYPALATE.ca JANUARY FEBRUARY 2013
Corriveau and LeBlanc invited me to prepare rappie pie with them. They started with
the stock, simmering the chicken with the chopped onions, some chicken fat and
salt, for about two hours. After an hour and a half, they grated the potatoes. I learned
that the potato texture should be mushy and slightly frothy, like creamed wheat.
They began squeezing the potatoes through cheesecloth to remove the water.
Then they poured the hot chicken broth onto the potato. (Not dumping the potatoes into the broth, as I had in my earlier attempt.) They told me that it’s important
to put the same amount of chicken broth back into the ‘taters as the amount of
water you squeezed out. The consistency of the potatoes will be like oatmeal.
Then, in a large square pan, Corriveau and her mother layered potatoes on the
bottom, covered them with onions and chicken, and added another layer of potatoes.
They placed butter chunks on top, though LeBlanc says the original recipe calls for
little cubes of pork fat. It turned out beautiful and golden-brown and delicious.
My second attempt at re-inventing flavours from my childhood, with the hands-on
knowledge I’d gleaned from Corriveau and LeBlanc, turned out remarkably better
than my first. But it wasn’t perfect, so I turned to Calgarian Zac Ryan. Ryan grew
up in Weymouth, Nova Scotia, which is located between Digby and Yarmouth on
the southwest shore. He moved to Calgary in 2002.
Ryan’s father’s family is Acadian, and the transplanted Maritimer grew up eating
rappie pie. “It’s a typical meal in my region of Nova Scotia. We made it for special
occasions, because it’s cheap, it feeds lots of people and everyone likes it.”
Rappie pie is a staple in Ryan’s Calgary home. He believes his aunt taught him how
to make it just right. He’s been making râpure for five years – he’s a pro at it now.
Ryan’s favourite version of rappie pie is made with quahog clams (bar clams). “I
have my family ship me jars of the clams so I can use them in my râpure,” he
says. “I also make rappie pie with chicken, on occasion, but prefer quahog clams.
I think the quahog thing is regional to Clare county because quahog râpure is the
most popular kind.”
For me, rappie pie has again become a comfort food in my home. I am finally proficient at making it, after my third, fourth and fifth attempts. And my inner 10-year-old
is all smiles.
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Rappie Pie
continued from page 40
Fresno
is all about fresh, local food
continued from page 42
Rappie Pie
You can make variations by substituting seafood
or pork for the chicken.
1 whole chicken, cut into large pieces
1 onion, chopped
salt and pepper
10 lb. russet potatoes, or new white potatoes
1/2 sweet onion, like Walla Walla, minced
salt and pepper to taste
butter
Have the following at the ready: a potato peeler,
two box graters, cheesecloth, several extra basins
or bowls, and an extra set of hands or two.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Put the chicken into a
large pot with cold water to cover, and bring it to
a boil. Add the chopped onion, salt and pepper.
Simmer the chicken until it’s tender, about 2
hours. Remove the chicken from the pot and
let it cool enough to handle, then pull the meat
from the bones into bite-sized pieces. Strain the
onions from the broth and reserve both.
Peel the potatoes, putting them into a bowl of
cold water as they’re peeled.
Grate the potatoes, using the shredding side
of a box grater. (Note: as potato oxidizes, it
turns pink. Speed is essential at this part of the
process – you don’t want the potatoes to turn
brown.) The potatoes will be mushy and half
liquid. Squeeze all of the liquid out of the potato
through cheesecloth, until they’re quite dry.
Measure and make note of the amount of liquid
you remove from the potatoes.
Bring the chicken broth back to a boil. Add as
much broth to the potatoes as the amount of
liquid you squeezed out. Blend the broth and
potatoes with a hand-held mixer for two minutes, or stir them until they’re thoroughly mixed.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Butter a deep 9"x 12” foil baking dish liberally.
Spread half the potatoes on the bottom of the
pan followed by a layer of the chicken topped
with the minced sweet onion. Cover with the
other half of the potatoes. Dot dollops of butter
over the top. Bake the rappie pie for 1-1/2
hours, covered for the first hour. Broil it for the
last 4 to 5 minutes for a beautiful browned top.
Serve hot with vegetables and/or a green salad.
Feeds lots of people, like 6 or 8, depending
on portion size. ✤
Jessica Patterson is a Calgary-based freelance
journalist. When she’s not gobbling the comfort
foods of her childhood, she often digs through
City Palate for interesting recipes to share with
her family and friends.
The next morning we woke to an
unseasonal rain. We opted to stay dry
and visited the Hye Quality Bakery
(hyequalitybakery.com), originators of
America’s first soft cracker bread in
1980 – the Hye Roller. It’s shipped all
over the country every day. Its origins
lie in authentic Armenian cracker
bread, which the bakery has been
making since 1957. The Hye Roller is
a soft, white, round flatbread that’s
great for making wrapped or rolled
sandwiches.
We watched as blobs of dough were
rolled out, baked and packaged, all onsite at the now semi-automated bakery.
Afterward, we chowed down on fresh
baked cracker bread – an instant hit
with all of us, especially Annabel.
We spent the rest of our three days
poking around Fresno’s neighbourhoods, dining on local produce at every
opportunity. Coming from a place with
a growing season that’s shorter than
the Mediterranean Grill’s lunch rush,
we gobbled up as much fresh, seasonal goodness as possible.
Fresno must be one of the few places
in North America that can boast a
fresh fruit delivery service – what was
hanging from trees only hours before
is delivered to your office, ready to eat.
RIPENOW (ripenowonline.com) helps
Fresno businesses provide healthy
workplace snacks by supporting local
farmers. RIPENOW susses out what’s
at peak ripeness, then selects, packages and delivers fruit orders direct to
businesses – a concept we Calgarians
can only dream of.
So the next time someone asks me,
“Why go to Fresno?” I’ll have my
answer ready. Go there to eat fresh
local food, and lots of it. Visit
playfresno.org to plan your trip. ✤
Colleen Seto pounds out prose for the likes of
Avenue, up! and Canadian Living. Find her at
colleenseto.blogspot.com.
CITYPALATE.ca JANUARY FEBRUARY 2013
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