Living in North America it is often hard to identify a truly Canadian dish. There are more than you would think and with this posting will make at least three uniquely Canadian dishes posted on this blog. I plan to post more of a Canadian influence for 2008 so you will be seeing more Canadian dishes in the future. Poutine is one of our favourites even though we do not indulge in it often. Poutine is a true comfort dish well worth making and one that will become one of your favourites as well.
Poutine
In some areas poutine is called "ugly fries". I'm not sure why as the fries are quite good and certainly are not ugly! There are three rules for making poutine: fresh hand-cut fries (sorry nothing else will do), real beef or chicken gravy (not canned, not powdered, the real McCoy!), and cheese (fresh white cheddar, ideally curds). Trust me on this, get the curds if at all possible (easily available in Canada, less so in the US). They have a slightly saltier flavour and chewier texture than grated cheddar that just really makes this dish. Ok so I had two out of the three but not the cheese curds. There are two simple rules for eating poutine: forget calories and enjoy!
Poutine is a simple dish to make. Simply deep fry the fries, top with cheese curds or in this case shredded cheese the pour over the hot gravy. I used left-over gravy from the eye of round roast. Please don't use anything but real gravy. At best you will get a sluff-off of poutine even though some sites tell you to use powdered gravy. Nope, use the real gravy for best results!
6 food lovers commented:
God forbid i should lose an ounce in the new year! i only read this recipe and could feel my thighs whispering about world domination, i can only imagine what they will do when i actually prepare it!
The best poutine I've ever had involved shredded mozzarella and not curds. It was amazing. Every poutine I've had since doesn't come anyone close to the greatness of the best and I've tried a lot of poutines. Unfortunately the restaurant that made the best doesn't exist anymore :(
LOL Jayedee :) I'm telling you poutine is so tasty that you won't even notice the thighs. Everyone knows the tummy is where it's at.
Traditionally the curds add a bit of saltiness and because of the texture they are stringy. However, good buffalo mozzarella used for poutine is more than acceptable although it will give a different flavour than cheddar or cheddar curds. This really is a dish where you want very good quality cheese because lower quality (some supermarket blocks) can really break the dish as far as flavour. And you definitely need real gravy.
Those look pretty good to me, GG.
Great post, I love poutine!
My boyfriend (who is originally from Canada) is on his way to Calgary right now, and I have instructed him to bring back as many cans of No Name poutine gravy as possible!!
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