Canadian recipe
How to make Poutine
Rural Quebec (Centre-du-Québec), late 1950s
Hot French fries topped with fresh cheese curds and a light brown gravy. The hot gravy softens the curds without fully melting them, so they stay a little chewy and squeak against your teeth.
Ingredients
- 800 g oven or deep-fried French fries (homemade or frozen)
- 300 g fresh cheese curds, at room temperature (or chunks of mild mozzarella if you cannot find curds)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons plain flour
- 500 ml beef stock
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- Black pepper
Method
- Take the cheese curds out of the fridge about an hour before, so they are not cold.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until light brown.
- Slowly whisk in the stock, then add the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the gravy coats a spoon. Season with pepper.
- Cook the fries until crisp and golden, following the packet or your usual method.
- Put the hot fries in bowls, scatter the curds over them and pour the very hot gravy on top. Eat at once, with a fork.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
Several towns claim to have invented it, including Warwick, Drummondville and Princeville. One story says a restaurant owner in Warwick, asked to put cheese curds on fries in 1957, said it would make 'une maudite poutine', a terrible mess.
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