Here's a traditional Acadian recipe that my family makes. It's called "
Rappie Pie" (pronounced "roppy pie") - from the French "râpé" ("grated") referring to the grated potatoes that make up the majority of the dish.
This is basically the Acadian national dish, and there are variations all through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This variety is specifically from the "French Shore" of Nova Scotia, near Yarmouth, where my mother's side of the family is from.
Word of warning... it is not a very pretty dish. It looks very unappetizing - like snot, really - but it's
delicious.
Anyway, I asked Ian if he'd like the recipe last night during TTSF, and said I'd post it on the forums. So here it is!
Rappie Pie Ingredients: • 15 lbs of potatoes (big and starchy, Idahos preferred)
• 1 whole chicken or other fowl
• Some chicken quarters with bones (legs and thighs – dark, fatty meat – necessary)
• 9 onions (strong, yellow cooking onions)
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• Salt pork belly
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Butter
• Two large, rectangular, disposable aluminum casserole pans
Directions: • Peel carrot, trim celery stalk, and roughly chop onions
• Boil carrot, celery stalk, onions, and chicken in the largest pot of water you can manage – you’re making chicken stock, and will need to make
at least 16 cups
• Season with salt and pepper to taste
• After the stock is made, remove the carrot and celery. Discard
• Remove the meat, debone it, and shred/cut it into bite-sized pieces it. Set it aside
• Strain the stock to remove any chicken bones. Discard them, but be sure to retain the boiled onions. Place them to the side
• Return the pot of stock to the stovetop, and keep it warm. Do not boil it yet, as you don’t want it to boil off
• Peel the potatoes and leave them in a sink full of cold water
• Grate the potatoes. You can grate them by hand, but this will take forever (if you grate them by hand, you will need to squeeze the juice out of them using cheesecloth). It’s better to use a vegetable juicer – preferably a model that centrifuges the pulp. The idea here is to remove the juice (and thus the starch) from your potatoes, leaving the pulp as dry as possible. Retain the pulp in a bowl, and note the amount of juice you remove from it before discarding the juice.
Noting the amount of juice you get from your potatoes is very important• Once all your potatoes are grated or juiced, bring your chicken stock to a boil. Pre-heat your oven to 325 F
• Add the boiling stock, 2 cups at a time, to the potato pulp. After each addition of stock, mix well and vigorously. You are using the hot stock to scald the potato pulp. The total amount of stock you are adding is at least the same as the amount of potato juice you removed and noted. The general idea is that you have removed the liquid from the potatoes, and are now replacing that liquid with chicken stock.
Note: often you will need to add 2-4 cups of stock more than the exact amount of potato juice you removed – you are looking for your potatoes to turn a grey, translucent colour. You may also add more stock if you prefer a runnier finished dish.
Note: when ladling the stock from the pot,
dig deep. The seasoning accumulates at the bottom of the pot; you want that in your potatoes. I usually use a small saucepan as a ladle, transfer the stock into a heat-resistant Pyrex measuring cup, then use that to add two cups of stock to the grated potatoes
• After you have added your stock and scalded your potatoes, you may notice larger chunks of potato slices in your bowl. Feel free to remove and discard those. While not strictly necessary, it does help create a more consistent finished dish
• Mix your cooked onions into your scalded potatoes
• Grease your pans with butter
• Half-fill your pans with potatoes, cover with chicken, then cover with remaining potatoes
• Cut pork belly into 12 pieces. Push the pieces into potatoes at regular intervals, six per pan
• Dot potatoes with butter
• Place pans in pre-heated oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours. The tops of the pies should be browned
• When finished, serve slices either as-is or topped with a pat of butter and some fancy molasses
If anyone ever takes a crack at making it, I'd love to hear about it!
