Fig.9

Fig.10

​*Written from my father’s point of view*​
It’s your first year in your own home. The first year you get to experiment with flavours, techniques, and traditions. It’s the first year you get to make the Christmas Eve dinner! And it may be your last, depending on the outcome. 
Your grandmother used to make her Chilean pastel de choclo (corn pie) from when she was a kid. Your aunts tried to recreate it when she died. But to put it lightly, they failed. As a kid, on Christmas Eve some of your friends would stay up for midnight Mass, then open their presents and eat a Québécois tourtière until morning. “Reveillon,” they called it. “We’ll mix the two traditions,” you decide, “ and add some maple syrup, because Lita’s pastel de choclo could always have used some maple.” You’ve got the basics: creamed corn, olives, boiled eggs, and ground beef. Remove the mashed potatoes from the pastel, and add some puffed pastry from the tourtiere. Remove the rabbit meat as well, your salaries can’t afford that. It’s an  exquisite corpse of flavours, traditions, and inspiration. 
​Your wife makes the pastry. The baby babbles on the floor, a paper crown on ​​her head, and a  boiled egg in her hand. You mix the ground beef in the blue cast iron pot - a wedding gift. If you had a garlic crusher, you’d use it. “You need to let it aerate while it’s cooking”, your mother-in-law tells you. Well, you learn something new every day. You poke the top with a fork, the series of four holes makes an image of mistletoe. Peering over your shoulder, she compliments the work of art, a glass of S.Pellegrino in her hand. The pie was good enough that your wife let you make it again the next year. Over the next decade and a half, you build on the recipe. You experiment with spices, more or less salt, or flat out forgetting the olives. The kitchen changes with a move, then a reno. The family grows, the faces change - you’re an odd bunch at that table. You wrap books with care, and set them on the plates - another invented tradition. You light the candles, peel the oranges, and read the jokes. You carry the name, and your children will too. The labour of love is always worth it. You can nearly see your grandmother at the head of the table. You haven’t failed.​

Exquisite Corpse Tourtière
*Makes 3 pastels*
The following is the recipe I jotted down while making these with my father on December 24, 2025. All  quotes come directly from my dad.

Prep-time: 80 mins.
Cook time: 30 mins.

Ingredients for pastry:
2 cups butter (½ in beginning, then an additional 1 ½ later on)
3 ⅓ cups flour
1 tsp salt
¾ cup ice water
Making the pastry: (account for 1 hour of chilling time)
- In a blender, pulse ½ cup of the butter, the flour, and the salt until combined.
- Add the remaining 1 ½ cups of butter  to the mixture and pulse until it forms pea-sized chunks.
- Drizzle the ice water over the mixture.
- Pulse 6-8 times for a loose dough to form.
- Divide the dough into six equal balls, roll out three circles for the shells, and three more as the lids.
- Refrigerate for about an hour.
- When ready for use:
- Cook shells at 360° for about 10 minutes. If air bubbles form (“They went straight up hot air balloon on us!”), press down on them gently with a spoon, or deflate with a fork. (Fig.4)

Fig.1

Fig.2

Fig.3

Fig.4

Fig.5

Fig.6

Fig.7

Fig.8

Ingredients for filling: (Fig.1)
1 garlic clove
⅓ cup Olive oil
3lb ground beef
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. eggnog spice - Cinnamon & nutmeg
3 tbsp. maple syrup
2x398 ml cans creamed corn
About 110 thompson raisins
1 jar (315 ml) sliced kalamata olives
6 boiled eggs
Icing sugar (optional)
Making the filling:
- In a pot at medium heat, let the diced garlic clove soak in a splash of olive oil. (“This is pulling from Italian cooking in which we steep garlic in oil to make ✨flavour sauce✨”) (Fig.2)
- Let garlic sizzle until it turns brown, meaning all of it’s flavour has been infused in the oil. Remove garlic from the pot, it’s no longer needed.
- Throw the ground beef into the pot, juices and all.
- Sprinkle with salt, eggnog spice, and splash with maple syrup. (“Flavour to your taste, but don’t taste it, because the meat is still raw… so just wing it”)
- Mix until flavours have been thoroughly incorporated.
- Add the creamed corn, and raisins. Let flavours mingle.
- Mix in olives, then leave the lid on for about 10 minutes - until sizzling, and the meat is still a bit pink. (Fig.3)
- Take off the heat so as to not dry it out.
*This is when the pastry shells go in for about 10 minutes.*
- Slice the hardboiled eggs 5 times vertically, then once or twice horizontally.
- When the pastry shells are ready, layer the meat filling, then eggs, then more meat. (Fig.5)
- Lay the lids, and pinch at the seams. Cut off the excess dough. (Fig.6)
- Use a fork to poke Christmassy drawings into the top. The ventilation is necessary, the artwork adds character. (Fig.7)
- Cook at 410° for about 30 minutes - until the tops are golden and crispy.
- The Chilean pastel de choclo has icing sugar sprinkled on top after cooking. This step is optional, and often forgotten. (Fig.8)
Best served with S.Pellegrino, and the wackiest, most lovely people you can find. (Fig.9,10,11)

Fig.11