O Canada!

When we first visited Canada as tourists many years ago, we saw "poutine" as one of the myriad offerings in the Food Court of a neighbourhood shopping mall. Curious, we shared an order between the two of us and weren't overly impressed by the combination of soggy oily fries, overly salty gravy the color of wood varnish (and about as much flavour) and bright yellow plastic cheese grated over it.

Perhaps our palates were not used to this particularly Canadian dish? We asked the Canadians who were hosting us and the response was: "poutine? POUTINE? you ate poutine ??" (roll eyes) "Sooo unhealthy!!"

Well, that was a while ago and since then we have tried a few more plates of the stuff, a few good, mostly bad. And learnt that you should not have grated cheese in poutine (sacrilege!)

But what IS poutine anyway? Well, as far as ingredients go, it has to have potato in the form of fries, real cheese curd - the type that squeaks when you bite into it and most importantly, a really good gravy, the type only your mom can make (if she is French Canadian).

According to several sauces (pardon the pun), it was invented in Quebec in the 1950s when a customer at the restaurant Lutin Qui Rit wanted to have french fries to go, and also by the way, could he have some cheese curds and gravy along with it. The restaurateur was reported to have said "ca va faire un maudite poutine" (That's going to make a damn mess).

So to celebrate out having been in Canada for 2 years, we decided to make a genuine home version of this dish. A healthy version, so as not to freak out out health conscious friends. Real cheese curd we obtained from our local supermarket, low fat oven baked fries and a lower fat, lower sodium home made gravy.

"Our Poutine"
1 bag sqeaky cheese curds about 450g
1 recipe low fat over baked fries
1 pint gravy
 

Oven - baked chips (not french fries)
large baking potatoes - I use all purpose, but  Yukon Gold is really tasty if you can get them

• Wash, scrub and peel if desired, cut into thick chips
• Blanch in boiling salted water (1 tsp salt to 1.5L water) for 10min
• Drain & pat dry
• Toss in a bowl with a sprinkling of olive oil, freshly ground sea salt and pepper
• Don't worry if chips get a rough surface - that will become a wonderful crunchy coating
• Lay on a well greased heated baking tray in a single layer*
• Bake in pre-heated oven 400F for 20min, turning over halfway**
• If chips are not brown at the end of cooking time, stick them under the broiler till desired brown-ness.

* place the baking tray in the oven while it is being heated up
** If you have a touch of Obsessive - Compulsiveness, you might turn each chip individually, I just use a fish slice / spatula

Home made gravy

• 1 Tabsp ketchup
• 1 tsp Worcestershire  sauce*
• 1 tsp chicken stock powder*
• 1 tsp beef stock powder*
• 1 Tabsp corn starch #
• 500ml water
• salt & pepper to taste
• tiny pinch smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (for color)

Method:
combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to boil, add more cornstarch if you want it thicker
* vegetarian version would omit these 3 items and use vegetable and mushroom stock powders and a teaspoon of nutritional yeast for more umami
# for a better "mouthfeel" and richer taste, make a traditional roux with butter and wheat flour


To Serve:
place warm fries in a deep dish, top with as much curd as you want, and as much gravy as you like!