Watts Cooking?

Today is St-Jean Baptiste, or la Saint-Jean - the day we celebrate the patron saint of Québec. Therefore, by extension, this is the national holiday of Québec. Here in London it's passed as just another day, but I know that everyone is partying it up back in Montreal.

At the beginning of June, my attention was diverted to a blogging event I hadn't heard of before. It's a food event in honour of Canada. Participants are asked to submit one sweet and/or savory dish that reminds them of Canada. I discussed this with my British partner-in-crime, T.

We toyed with a few ideas... Maple syrup seemed the obvious choice, but we discounted it for that very reason. We soon realised that all of our ideas had a very East-coast focus; we were finding it very hard to find a single food that encompassed the entire country. Tourtière, poutine râpée, lobster, fried clams; all the foods I had been missing since I came to London understandably came from the areas that I grew up in. Finally we decided to throw dietary caution to the wind and embrace the fact that not only am I Canadian, but I am French Canadian.


What says Canada to me? Poutine. Oh, poutine. Everytime I try to describe it to Brits they try to play it off simply as 'chips and gravy', but it is so much more! It's the perfectly crisp french fries, with the tangy gravy-like sauce and the squeekiest cheese curds. I realize that many Canadians have likely never had poutine, but in my province of Quebec it's arguably our provincial dish. So, since today is St-Jean Baptiste, and Quebec is firmly a part of Canada, I present to you: Poutine.

As you will see in the recipe section of this post, the real ingredients were a bit hard to come by in the UK, but I made the best of it. If you are in Quebec I recommend going to a greasy spoon such as La Belle Province for the real poutine experience, however home-made varieties work nearly just as well for those out-of-province.

I think poutine is the ideal entrant for the Mmm... Canada event - I hope you do too!

(you'll have to wait till the end of the week to see what sweet dish reminds me of Canada!)


Recipe - Poutine

It's almost ridiculous to give you a recipe for poutine because it's far from an exact science. Being in the UK I used nice crisp oven fries, a can of instant gravy granules (Bisto, to be exact) and tore up some fresh mozzarella into curdlike pieces (let it get to room temperature before using).

If you're luckier and live near Quebec, your local supermarket may specifically have sauce à poutine. You may also be able to get your hands on real squeeky cheesecurds if you're living in eastern Canada.

1 plate of french fries (just out of the oven, very hot)
1 handful of cheesecurds or fresh mozarella, torn into curdlike pieces, room temperature
1 can sauce à poutine, or prepared gravy of your choice, very hot

Pile your plate high with french fries, toping it off with the pieces of cheese. Liberally pour the very hot gravy over the whole plate. Wait a few seconds so that the cheese starts to get warmed up by the ingredients and becomes gooey and stringy. Enjoy!