Poutine

[Deleted]

I have always found it remarkable that "poutine" has not really spread beyond its native Québec. It's a very simple dish and would certainly appeal to most American palates.

You don't know what it is? It is french fries with cheese (usually cheddar) fragments, covered with brown gravy.

Of course, photographs make it look like something from the "Food Abomination Gallery" but I have always found it quite tasty when eaten in a reasonable quantity. I noticed that it is sold by both McDonald's and Burger King in Québec, so clearly it is a basic necessity of life there, like a Big Mac or Poulet McNuggets.

As for the word "poutine" it would appear that it is a corruption of the English word "pudding."

[tillystar]

This is standard student food in the UK, where it is descriptively known as cheesy chips with gravy.

It is the ideal food to eat on a long walk home from the pub on a cold night.

[lagatta]

The cheese is supposed to be fresh curd (before pressing to make hard cheeses).

Confession: I don't like poutine. I love good frites, but I don't like them glopped up with sauce and melting cheese.

[bazfaz]

Lagatta is surely right. Frites should not be soggy.

[gringalais]

Here we have chorrillana, fries covered with sautéed onion, beef and fried eggs. Not for those with cholesterol problems. I have tried it, but it is just too much grease for my taste.

picadas.bligoo.com/content/view/206755/N_45_Un_Clasico_Porteno_La_Chorrillana.html

[Don Cuevas]

When I was a child in Montreal, ca. 1049, we could buy frites for 10¢ a paper cone, from a guy in a horse drawn wagon. Vinegar and salt, nothing more on them.

[bixaorellana]

I agree with Lagatta and Baz. Why make something crisp only to turn around and dampen it?

There are variations on the wet atop crisp thing there, of which I greatly disapprove. Do. not. put. hot. sauce. on. the. popcorn!

[Deleted]

I agree with Lagatta,Baz and Bixa.

[bazfaz]

And don't put spinach in your pesto.

[Deleted]

I like soggy fries. That's why I like the limp authentic not-frozen fries served by the Turkish kebab places. More potato and less oil soaked burnt fringes.

I felt vindicated recently when new scientific evidence proved that crispier fries were much worse for one's health. Of course, this goes into the infinite list of "everything is bad for you and causes cancer."

[Don Cuevas]

Mar 19, 2009 16:11:17 GMT bixaorellana said:

I agree with Lagatta and Baz. Why make something crisp only to turn around and dampen it?

There are variations on the wet atop crisp thing there, of which I greatly disapprove. Do. not. put. hot. sauce. on. the. popcorn!

I feel that way about chiles rellenos. Great concept initially. Ruined by sogging the coating with tomato broth.

One of the worst Mexican dishes, ever, is Chicharrón en Salsa. Crispy, puffy fried pork skin, simmered to a slithery texture, in a spicy sauce.

[bixaorellana]

Oh wait.

There are exceptions to every rule! Properly made (i.e., at home) chiles rellenos are a slightly unctuous but delicious treat because the coating is really there only to soak up the sauce.

And admittedly I almost barfed the first time I had chicharrón en salsa, but that's because I didn't know what it was & it took me aback. Now I love it.

I think both those dishes work because they aren't part crisp and part soggy -- they've become something else entirely.

[tillystar]

I like all chips. Crispy ones are good and so are soggy ones. Each have their place, I mean you couldn't possibly have fish and chips without proper soggy chips (and the treat of finding some little crispy ones at the bottom of the bag!), but you couldn't have a big bowl of mussells with soggy chips...its just wrong.

There is some delight in melted cheese or beans making crispy fries soggy so you just have the odd crispy bit that hasn't been boged down by the covering.

The only really bad chips/fries are those that stil have solid uncooked bits in. They make me cry. And I had to stop buying baked potatoes for lunch as you always risk getting one that has little uncooked bits and I just can't cope with that.

[mockchoc]

I have to try poutine just once

[Deleted]

I'm not sure if we've had a thread about Poutine before. But just wanted to say what a wonderful dish this is. The local cafe in town serves the best Poutine I have had outside of Montreal. There's a restaurant in city that adds bacon bits to it, which I think spoils it.

It's great as it is, but I do worry about the lack of vegetables. What kind would go best with this dish do you think?

[lagatta]

I hate poutine. Not everyone here likes it, and some that do only like it after a drinking binge. If I'm going to eat frites, I want them to be crunchy, not gloppy.

Poutine didn't originate in Montréal - it is thought to have originated in Drummondville, a rather ugly industrial town south of the St Lawrence, between Montréal and Québec.

[Deleted]

So, it's more a working mans dinner?

I actually like the gloppy aspect of it. But then again, I'm just a kid at heart.

[Deleted]

Poutine:



yum.

[Deleted]

I liked poutine from the first time I saw it -- I knew I had to have it. I have always preferred limp fries to crunchy ones anyway. And these days I feel vindicated, because the health experts say that limp fries are much better for you -- fewer burned parts and less oil absorbed.

I wouldn't want poutine every day, though, and since I have never looked for it outside of Québec, I haven't had it for at least five years.

[Deleted]

It hasn't caught on in Paris then?

[lagatta]

But kerouac, the frites in poutine are first fried crisp, so there wouldn't be less oil, and then they are doused with a greasy sauce, and of course the cheese curds.

Yes, deyana, poutine started up not as a dinner but a snack, in a semi-rural, semi-industrial area.

I associate Paris more with the "merguez-frites" a sandwich including a very hot North African sausage and frites inside (as in a chip butty). It can be doused with harissa or other sauces.

Hmm, the "Poutine parisienne" would omit the bread roll and feature pieces of merguez, along with a harissa-laced sauce!

[Deleted]

They are not really fried crisp, because they don't use the dreadful shoestring potatoes of the fast food chains. The larger the fries, the healthier they are. Deyana's illustration is a good one of 'normal' sized fries.

The dinner I had in Calais (already forgot where the photos were posted) of fricadelle and fries in a sandwich are a good example of uncouth non nutritious goodness.

[bjd]

What is that stuff on top in the picture?

[Deleted]

cheese.

[onlymark]

Chips with gravy always goes down well, especially if the gravy is part of a steak and onion pie.
But chips with curry sauce from the chip shop have never sat well with me.

[Deleted]

Poutine has nothing to do with meat pie or curry sauce.

Here's a basic recipe:


Ingredients

* 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
* 1 (10.25 ounce) can beef gravy
* 5 medium potatoes, cut into fries
* 2 cups cheese curds

Directions

1. Heat oil in a deep fryer or deep heavy skillet to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C). While the oil is heating, you can begin to warm your gravy.
2. Place the fries into the hot oil, and cook until light brown, about 5 minutes. Make the fries in batches if necessary to allow them room to move a little in the oil. Remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain.
3. Place the fries on a serving platter, and sprinkle the cheese over them. Ladle gravy over the fries and cheese, and serve immediately.

Like I said earlier, you can add bacon bits or chicken or other meats to it if you want, but I like it just plain, as it says in the above recipe.

[Deleted]

No meat!

[Deleted]

I agree! I don't like any kind of meat on it.

[lagatta]

Not even foie gras?

[onlymark]

So Poutine is chips with meat gravy and cheese on top.

What if I used the gravy from the Sunday roast but there were a few little bits of meat in it?
In your recipe is there no meat in the tinned meat gravy then?