What’s better than going to a conference in beautiful Montreal? Having my sister come along to explore post-conference sights and sumptuous eats! One memorable meal during the trip was well-deserved having trudged through the cold rain and long wait to be seated amongst a young crowd that spilled onto the chilly sidewalk outside (granted, it was a charming walk in a cool, hipster neighborhood). This was a local poutine joint, surprisingly, one of the few in Montreal that serves a vegetarian version.
Admittedly, I love all things pomme frite. I can eat them cold, ½ frozen, I’m usually not that picky. But fries smothered in rich, savory gravy and adorned with yummy morsels of cheese? It’s an instant infatuation.
I recently made my own version of poutine, inspired by the Quebecoise. The menu at La Banquise was extensive, with countless varieties of toppings. My sister and I opted for the traditional version, and I suspect that many diehard poutine lovers out there would probably scoff at the “Starbucks-ian” options that are out there. Hence, three simple ingredients for my version at home: fries, gravy, cheese.
One could probably get pretty fancy with the fries, but we just happened to have the crinkle cut Ore Ida variety in the freezer. I did seek special ingredients for the gravy, as this seems to really be the star of the show. My mushroom gravy was made with onions, dried porcini mushrooms (saved the liquid used to reconstitute the shrooms for the gravy), and finely diced button mushrooms. I sautéed these ingredients, added a dash of leftover white wine that I was tired of seeing in the fridge, and turned the heat up until the liquid was largely evaporated. I added some butter and flour to make a roux. The key ingredient that I added next for that deeply rich, je ne sais quoi, flavor was a few handfuls of nutritional yeast flakes, aka, golden flecks of tasty goodness (of which I only recently began using in my cooking due to a recipe from the Real Food Daily cookbook—the restaurant itself, alas, discovered just a few short weeks before we had to move from lovely Santa Monica, CA!). Okay, so I added the porcini liquid and some vegetable stock to the mix, some garlic salt and pepper. Drench the cooked fries in gravy and cheese and voila!
The only thing that wasn’t quite right was the cheese. I used a Mexican style mozzarella type cheese, cut in cubes, but it turned out to be way too gooey. It seems like true poutine has a mild mozzarella-y cheese that should be “squeaky.” C’est la vie. This is a dish that I know I’ll enjoy experimenting with and perfecting!
