Yesterday was Canada Day! I grew up in Canada so of course we had to celebrate!
Most of my family is still up there. They all got together and celebrated with their traditional backyard barbecue. But since we'll get the barbecue experience on the 4th I had to get a little more creative here!
I thought a lot about what might be a fun Canadian type of meal. There are many things that I could have done... Kraft Dinner, Fish and Chips, Yorkshire Pudding, ketchup chips, anything with Maple Syrup! I guess I could have gone with any of the meals that I ate while I was a kid and made it work, but I wanted to make at least part of the meal something that is truly Canadian.
Finally I decided on a couple of things that I love, and that I knew my kids would eat too! Once that was decided I turned to Pinterest to find some recipes.
First up, Poutine. If you've never had Poutine you are missing out! It's basically french fries covered in cheese curds (or squeaky cheese), and then smothered with gravy. Sooooo Good! This dish originated in Quebec, Canada.
The funny thing about Poutine is that I never actually had it while I was living in Canada, in fact, I don't think I even knew it existed. Maybe because it was more of a French Canadian thing, and living on Canada's west coast we were pretty removed from that.
My family lived on Vancouver Island and we often travelled back and forth to the mainland on a big ferry boat. As a youth I fell in love with the fries and gravy dish they sold in the cafeteria on the boat. But, it wasn't until I was an adult and took my family home that I learned about Poutine... fries and gravy with gooey melted cheese... maybe not the healthiest of all foods, but I'd say definitely one of the tastiest!
So, to Pinterest I went, searching for some advice on creating this traditional Canadian dish for my family. I found what looks like an excellent recipe, making everything but the cheese from scratch (here), but I had lots going on yesterday and didn't have the luxury of time to dedicate to going all out on it, so decided to save it for another day and go with an easier cheaters version that I found here.
This version uses frozen french fries, dry brown gravy mix, and cheese curds. Can't get much easier than that!
Finding cheese curds can be the hardest part of the process. Cheese curds are a byproduct the comes when making cheese. They are firm like cheese, with a mild flavor, but have kind of a springy, rubbery texture. They can be hard to find here in the western United States.
When we lived in the midwest there was a little Amish town down the road where we could find cheese curds. Those ones were nice and fresh, and when you'd bite into them they'd squeak! That's why they have the nick name of Squeaky Cheese!
Somehow I came across cheese curds at a store here in Idaho though! I was excited to use the real thing (even if they didn't squeak since they weren't freshly made). If I couldn't find them here I would have substituted chunks of cheddar or mozzarella cheese in their place.
Of course the frozen fries and brown gravy mix were easy to find.
So, first, all I did was deep fry my fries (they could have been baked in the oven as a healthier alternative, but this time I did it the not so healthy way). I used Peanut oil, and actually deep fried them twice... the second time was for a little extra crispiness right before I put them on our plates.
Once I had a plateful of crispy fries I added a bunch of cheese curds over the top. The curds I had were quite large so I crumbled them up a little to make sure that they'd melt just right.
Then I smothered the whole thing in hot gravy... it needed to be hot enough to start to melt the cheese and get it nice and gooey!
And that was it, bon appetite! The easy cheater version of mouth watering Poutine!
I served it with a little fried chicken, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and fresh red cherries.
Then for dessert we ate another Canadian treat, originating just North of where I grew up... Nanaimo Bars... maybe I'll share that recipe with you sometime too!
I think we'll have to just eat salads for at least three weeks to make up for last night's dinner, but I would say it was well worth it!
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