The story goes that some time in the late 1950's a regular at a restaurant in Warwick, Quebec by the name of Eddy Lainesse asked the staff to add cheese curds on top of his fries, to which the owner, one Fernand Lachance, exclaimed: 'ça va faire une maudite poutine', or 'it will make a damn mess'. Whether this is a true story or not is debatable, but one thing not up for debate is that poutine is one of Canada's most recognizable dishes, and rather than being a damn fine mess, I'd happily argue that it is instead a thing of absolute beauty.
So why poutine as an inspiration then? Well quite simply, yesterday was Canada Day. Yeah, I get that I probably should have put this together yesterday, but quite frankly I was too busy enjoying the other festivities. I figure that you can consider this a continuation of the celebration, or at minimum, a fantastic way to combat your Canada Day hangover.
Poutine is pretty straight forward; it's just fries, cheese curds and gravy. The trick is just making sure that each aspect is of good quality, adding in just slight tweaks and variations as necessary. Personally I've made two deviations from the most common recipes you'll find: the first is to use Yukon Gold potatoes rather than the more traditional Kennebec fries; and the second is use of a peppered bacon gravy. This latter change is driven by necessity; I didn't want to use a simple gravy mix, and bacon seemed like a great way to bring in flavour without needing to cook a whole joint of meat. Of course, it helps that everyone loves bacon.
Anyway, it may be a day late, but happy Canada Day everyone. :)
Serves: 2 People
Bacon poutine melt with Yukon Gold potatoes, cheese curds and a peppered bacon gravy.
There's quite a few components here that cook at different speeds and all need to come together at the end, so don't be afrain to remove things from the heat if they look finished; you can always give the completed sandwich a minute or two under a grill to bring everything back up to temperature and ensure everything is melted.