North America · Volume 38, The Curd, the Cure and the Sugar Bush
Poutine
Quebec, Canada
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
As tradition built it
Poutine
About 45 minutes, including a 15 to 30 minute rest between the two fries.
Ingredients
- 454 g (1 lb) Russet potatoes, cut into batons
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 x 284 ml cans beef broth, undiluted
- 1 x 284 ml can chicken broth, undiluted
- to taste pepper, to taste
- 454 g (1 lb) fresh, squeaky cheddar cheese curds, made same day, unrefrigerated
Method
- Cut russet potatoes into batons and double-fry them: a first fry at roughly 150°C to cook the potato through without colouring it, rested fifteen to thirty minutes.
- A second fry at roughly 185 to 190°C to crisp and colour the outside.
- Dissolve 2 tbsp cornstarch in 2 tbsp water for the gravy.
- Melt 6 tbsp unsalted butter, then cook 1/4 cup flour into it for about five minutes until golden.
- Cook 2 chopped garlic cloves for thirty seconds.
- Bring two 284 ml cans of beef broth and one 284 ml can of chicken broth, both undiluted, to the boil.
- Stir the cornstarch slurry through and simmer three to five minutes to thicken; season with pepper to taste. Yields roughly one litre.
- Scatter fresh, squeaky cheddar cheese curds, made that same day and never refrigerated, generously over the hot fries.
- Pour the hot gravy over immediately, melting the curd's surface just enough to soften it without fully liquefying it, so the outside turns creamy while the centre stays firm.
What a modern chef changes
Sous vide potato, clarified gravy, curd held at the edge of melting
Cross-references Rung 3 (cheese curd's calcium-dependent squeak).
Method
- Cook the potato batons sous vide first, at a precise low temperature that cooks them through with total evenness before either fry ever touches them, then chill and dry them thoroughly so the two-stage fry becomes purely a crisping and colouring job rather than a cooking one.
- Reduce the finished gravy a shade further in a wide pan and pass it through a chinois for total clarity, so the sauce's own body comes from a proper reduction rather than only from the cornstarch.
- Warm the curds very gently, not melting them, in a low oven for exactly the few minutes it takes the fries to finish their second fry, so the gravy meets a curd that is already at the very edge of its own melting point rather than starting from cold.