Recipe: Oven-Baked Poutine
The first time I heard of poutine was in the very early nineties. Our friend Shelley had a boyfriend who had a car, and we all piled in and he drove us to what was, at the time, Rainbow Pizza (a five-minute walk, but I mean, Danny had a CAR). Rainbow was known for its soggy, tasteless pizza. Clearly they needed another gig, and that’s probably why they were trying out this poutine thing they had over in Quebec. It didn’t work for them, and Rainbow closed a couple of years later, and was turned into a Chinese restaurant, but by that time poutine was everywhere.
“Real” poutine uses cheese curds, which I’m told are not available worldwide, and which are really expensive most of the time anyway, so I’ve included some of the substitutes I use. Also, I don’t have a deep fryer at home, but this recipe uses oven fries. And if you use a vegetable- or miso-based gravy, it can be made vegetarian.
about 1 large potato per person, peel optional
about 1/3-½ cup (80-125 mL) gravy per person (I haven’t yet found a kind of brown gravy that absolutely doesn’t work, but a recipe follows just in case)
¼ cup (60 mL) cheddar cheese curds per person, or if you can’t get curds, an equal amount of grated or crumbled cheddar, mozzarella, or as long as we’re indulging in curdless sacrilege here, gouda or provolone
3 tablespoons (45 mL) of canola or olive oil
a baking sheet large enough to hold the fries in a single layer
oven mitts or a kitchen towel folded enough times that you can handle hot pans with it
tongs or very callused fingers
a serving dish, or dishes
if you really want those potatoes peeled, a peeler
if you’re making your own gravy, a pot, a wooden spoon, and a wire whisk
if you’re grating cheese, a cheese grater
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 Celsius). Slice the potatoes into 1-cm-or-so sticks. Put them in a bowl, toss them in 2 tablespoons of the oil, and salt them lightly. Use the remaining tablespoon to oil the baking sheet, and arrange the potatoes in a single layer.
Put the fries in the oven for about twenty minutes. At the ten-minute mark, take them out and turn each one with the tongs (or your very callused fingers, if you are brave and extremely careful), and then put them back in. Keep an eye on them in the second half of cooking, adding or subtracting time as necessary. If the gravy isn’t already hot, use this time to heat it.
When the fries are done, pull them out of the oven. Either apportion them in separate dishes, or schlump them all together in one big dish. For better cheese coverage, put down a layer of fries, a layer of curds, another layer of fries, and then another layer of curds. Pour the gravy over top.
Let it sit a bit until it’s lovely and melty. But don’t, DO NOT, let it get cold, or it will become a building material.
3 tablespoons (45 mL) butter or pan drippings
3 tablespoons (45 mL) flour
2 cups (500 mL) broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable)
a pinch of basil, or to taste
Melt the butter in a saucepan over the stovetop, and work in the flour with the wooden spoon. Over medium heat, whisk in broth and seasonings, and stir constantly until the gravy is thickened and begins to bubble.
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