Servings:
1 portion
Ingredients:
300g fries
50g cheese curds (or alternatively 25g cheddar and 25g low moist mozzarella)
Quick sauce:
8g dark brown instant gravy powder
80 ml water
¼ tsp chicken stock powder
Homemade sauce:
100g beef
½ onion
2 tsp paprika powder
200ml water
½ tsp chicken stock powder
½ tsp beef stock powder
½ tsp cornstarch + ½ tbsp water
½ tbsp butter
Preparation:
1) Poutine is Canada’s national dish and it consists of fries, topped with cheese curds and gravy. It’s quite a simple recipe, but there is a lot of room for variations.
2) First, you prepare the fries. Typically double deep-fried French fries are used in poutine. But if you don’t own a fryer, you can use already pre-fried frozen fries and bake them in the oven.
3) Of course you could also cut fresh potatoes and deep-fry the potato sticks by submerging them in oil heated in a pot or bake them in the oven. But I tried both these methods, and I wasn’t happy with the result.
4) While the fries are in the fryer, you can heat the oven to about 180°C, because later on we’ll melt the cheese on the fries in there. If you’re already preparing the fries in the oven, then of course you don’t have to think about that.
5) Now, you can tend to the gravy. Many recipes of poutine call for a mixture of powdered chicken and beef stock powder, but I tried making a gravy out of that and it tasted really yukky to me.
6) An alternative for that would be dark brown instant gravy. This tastes much better than if you use stock. And it’s also really easy to prepare. Just mix the powder with water and a bit of chicken stock, heat it up and if you want to, adjust the thickness with cornstarch slurry.
7) But my preferred method is to make a quick gravy from scratch. For that, you’ll cut, season and sear some beef in a stainless steel pan. In the meantime finely dice an onion and when the beef chunks have taken on a nice color, you can take them out and sweat the onion in the same pan at medium heat.
8) Once the onion has softened add a few cloves of garlic, some tomato paste and paprika powder and after a few seconds, deglaze with a mixture of chicken and beef stock. I know I said the gravy made out of stock tasted bad, but if you use it in this way, it doesn’t, I promise.
9) Now put the beef back in and let it simmer for 15 minutes. If you want to keep this dish vegetarian, you could substitute the meat for champignons and use vegetable stock instead of the meat based stock.
10) Now I’ll prepare the seasoning for the fries. Mix some salt, paprika, garlic and onion powder together. When the fries are done, immediately toss them in the seasoning, so it sticks on them.
11) Then spread them on a baking sheet covered in baking paper. Now it’s time to sprinkle the cheese curds over them. If cheese curds aren’t available in your country (like here in Germany) you can use cheddar cheese and low moist mozzarella as a substitute (in the video I used “classic” mozzarella, because that’s the only one I could find around here).
12) Put the fries and cheese in the preheated oven until the cheese begins to melt.
13) Meanwhile you have time to finish the gravy. After the homemade gravy has reduced in volume and increased in flavor, thicken the gravy with some cornstarch slurry. To add a finishing touch, whisk in a bit of cold butter.
14) When the cheese is beginning to melt, take out the baking sheet and plate the fries. Then just pour the gravy over the cheesy fries and your Poutine is done!
15) If you only let the meat simmer in the gravy for the 15 minutes given here, then it will be very tough and not really nice to eat. To reduce the food waste I'd recommend to start the gravy 2 hours before the fries. If you make sure the meat is covered in the gravy and simmering for 2 hours, it should be tender when the rest of the poutine is done and you can eat it as a topping. If you use champignons instead of meat, this extra time won't be necessary and you still have a delicious topping.
Nutritional Analysis of one portion:
energy 1230,5 kcal water 300,2 g alcohol 0,0 g
Macronutrients Vitamins Minerals
carbohydrates 82,2 g vitamin B1 0,5 mg NaCl 3,1 g
dietary fiber 9,5 g vitamin B2 0,5 mg sodium 1278,2 mg
monosaccharides 5,3 g niacin 6,9 mg chlorine 1945,7 mg
disaccharides 2,2 g pantothenic acid 1,2 mg calcium 418, 5 mg
protein 23,0 g vitamin B6 1,6 mg magnesium 141,6 mg
fat 90,2 g biotine 2,2 µg potassium 2117,6 mg
SAFA 28,6 g folic acid 65,3 µg phosphorus 511,3 mg
MUFA 11,0 g vitamin B12 0,8 µg sulfur 321,7 mg
PUFA 38,1 g vitamin C 32,7 mg zinc 3,7 mg
linoleic acid 31,4 g vitamin E 18,2 mg copper 1,2 mg
linolenic acid 6,7 g vitamin D 0,1 µg manganese 0,9 mg
cholesterol 61,9 mg vitamin K 212,1 µg iron 5,3 mg
vitamin A 558,3 µg iodine 38,4 µg
carotene 2,0 mg
* the relative amounts show the percentage cover of the recommended daily nutrient intake (calculated for me personally, the values may differ for you depending on sex, age, height, weight and activity level)