Lac-St-Jean Three-Meat Pie [camp fire]
From:	Nicole, Quebec, Canada
Comments:	A recipe that we like to prepare year after year. If desired, add more ingredients. This pie, excellent recipe, reheated over an open-fire, is served along with a crusty bread and a green salad, seasoned with a homemade or a bottled salad dressing. Serve long with tea, coffee or a glass of red wine. For best results, season prepared meat and potatoes on the night before serving; keep refrigerated, into an hermetic freezer bag, with a zipper. Or thaw frozen mixture overnight, refrigerated. We spend approximately 2 weeks camping and I can assure you that our neighbors are astonished to see what we cook over an open fire. They only light their fire in the evening but I prepare some food at any time, even when it rains; my husband makes sure that there always is some embers underneath. I also prepare spaghetti sauces, pancakes, French toasts, toasts, eggs, bacon, coffee, tea, boiled corn-on-the-cob over the open fire; I even warm-up some dish washing water over the open fire. What I need, according to the season, is a heavy cast-iron casserole, a frypan and a saucepan, the same ones that I use in my oven at home during the winter, that I wash and then dry using paper toweling or any old clean cloth that I will throw away before leaving. It is REALLY IMPORTANT to have a heavy black cast-iron casserole with a lid, BBQ utensils and thick mits or pot holders. A cast-iron frypan are what you need to cook pancakes or French toasts and even some homemade French fries; a small cast-iron saucepan is perfect to boil vegetables and prepare a sauce, to reheat or prepare some oatmeal, to poach eggs.... As a rolling pin, you can use any clean empty bottle or any other round container such a clean can, label removed of course. To cook over an open fire : Prepare and light a wood log and briquet fire. Wait until fire is burned to embers. Using a metal shovel, shape a hole into the embers and lay some regular bricks over the bottom to be able to sit a casserole so that embers do not the bottom of the casserole. Note : the intense heat that emanates will cook a meat pie, a pouding, even beans in approximately 1 hour [always check to see that the food does not stick to the bottom, nor burn; it is sometimes necessary to remove the casserole and arrange a wire rack in the fire before returning the casserole over the fire, after waiting for approximately 5 to 10 minutes - it will continue cooking]. If needed, add some briquets or wod logs to the fire. Remove cooled bricks using a camping shovel or any other on-hand tool; leave to cool completely onto a wire rack. If desired a cast-iron frypan or small saucepan, wrapped into al foil, can be used as a support to keep-warm or reheat. Back home, clean and wrap frypan and saucepan for the next camping trip.
Servings:	2 to 4
Ingredients	Preparation
1 pound [454 g] small lean stewing beef cubes 1 pound [454 g] small lean stewing veal cubes 1 pound [454 g] small lean stewing pork cubes 1 large yellow or red onion, diced 4 to 5 potatoes, cubed 1/2 to 3/4 cup [125 to 190 mL] beef broth concentrate What's left of a red wine bottle [optional] 1 bay leaf Ground black or white pepper, to taste Steak spices, to taste [optional] 1 approximately 1/2-inch [1.3-cm] thick pie shell, as large as the inside of the casserole	Preheat campfire. Arrange small stewing beef, veal and pork cubes into a cast-iron casserole. Season meat cubes to taste with ground pepper and, if desired, with steak spices. Well mix in onion dices, potato cubes, add bay leaf and sprinkle mixture to taste with pepper and, if desired, steak spices. Reserving remaining liquids to add while cooking, pour just enough beef broth concentrate and, if desired red wine, into casserole to cover all ingredients. Lay pie shell over ingredients and cut a hole into the middle to let steam out, and to be able to pour more liquids if needed while cooking. Cover then transfer casserole into the centre of the fire, over really hot bricks. Cook pie until dough is golden brown yet not black, and little crusty, for approximately 1 hour, according to the intensity of the fire.