F1 Foods Canada Round-Up and the Next Challenge: Austria

 

Last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix was won by Lewis Hamilton, but never mind that, what about those Canadian recipes?! The idea behind Formula 1 Foods is to make something inspired by the location of each race, and for me Canada was a bit easier than some of the countries we've had!

I made poutine, which is basically posh chips with gravy and cheese, and tastes far nicer than it sounds! The gravy is more of a sauce with a hint of BBQ; I was very sceptical but really enjoyed them!

Suelle from Mainly Baking shared these butter tart squares which of course use maple syrup. They have a deep filling of syrup and nuts and look like sticky squares of gorgeousness.

Welcome to Eating Enhanced - a blog I hadn't come across before so it was nice to see a new entrant taking part. Maple syrup again is the star of the show in these maple banana cakes, which also have raisins for added chewiness.

Last but not least, a savoury dish from Jane at Onions and Paper: venison steaks with slow cooker scalloped potatoes. On her last trip to Canada she picked up a slow cooker recipe book; unfortunately the potatoes didn't turn out very well (by her own admission) but the venison looks lovely!

The next Formula 1 Grand Prix takes place on 19-21 June, this time in Austria. So you have plenty of time to link up your Austrian recipes (anyone for Schnitzel?) - the event will close on Sunday 28 June. Please add your recipes (which can include old posts) to the linky here.

Poutine - Posh chips with gravy

When I was at primary school I remember a friend who had hot dinners was served hamburger (possibly with chips, though I forget now) with gravy. We all thought that was very odd though it doesn’t appear to have been entirely unusual for school dinners of the 1980s. And perhaps the school was actually ahead of its time – have you come across poutine, which is essentially chips with gravy?

 

I was looking for a Canadian dish for the next round of Formula 1 Foods and remembered going to a Canada Day party last year (the host wasn’t Canadian, she just liked the excuse for a themed party!) where poutine was served. I wasn’t particularly taken with it as it seemed to just be Bisto on oven chips, but actually there is more to it than that. It’s more of a sauce that’s similar to gravy, and then has cheese curds on top; it’s typical diner food in Canada and is apparently popular at hockey games. I don’t know whether they eat poutine at the Formula 1 Grand Prix – I doubt it but you never know!

 

I found a great recipe online that also involved making the chips yourself but I didn’t have time to do this, and my boyfriend doesn’t like homemade chips, so I used oven chips. I also had to look up what cheese curds are, and found that they are the solid parts of soured milk that comes from when it’s being processed into cheese – and according to Wikipedia, they are often used in cooking or even eaten alone in Canada or the US. I have got a cheese making kit that I got for Christmas which would have been the perfect thing to use, as I could actually make cheese curds. But I hadn’t read the recipes and didn’t realise that to make the cheeses I needed either cream or full fat milk and I only had skimmed – and I’m so busy at the moment I knew that if I put off making my poutine for another week I probably wouldn’t get around to it. I did read online that grated cheese is an acceptable alternative so that’s what I used. I only realised much later that cottage cheese is actually a curd, though I didn’t have any of that in the house either!

 

The poutine recipe I used is from the Food Network:

 

 

As I mentioned I skipped the part of the recipe for making the chips and went straight in with the sauce. I used one pan to fry the onion and garlic, and added both chicken and beef stock, ketchup, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. In another pan I melted butter and stirred in the flour to make a roux, then carefully whisked in the stock mixture.

 

It was thicker than I had expected – it thickened as I kept the pan over a low heat – so by the time the chips were ready, I could spoon rather than pour it on. I was highly dubious at the thought of chips with gravy but this sauce had a real depth of flavour and a hint of barbecue – it was really lovely. I couldn’t tell from the picture whether the cheese was supposed to be underneath or on top of the sauce so I did a bit of both – and ended up going back for seconds of sauce!
 

 

I’m entering this in Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I created to share dishes inspired by the location of each Formula 1 Grand Prix race. This weekend it’s taking place in Canada.

 

Maple Syrup Cupcakes with Candied Bacon

 

 My previous forays into cakes with bacon have met with mixed success; these Elvis cupcakes were fantastic but these bacon brownies were pretty dreadful.

I used this recipe from the Canadian Food Network though changed it a bit as I was making these at the last minute for a Canada Day party and didn't have time to reduce down the maple syrup and I don't think you can get maple extract in the UK (at least I've never come across it). The recipe also included bacon in the cake but I decided to save the bacon for the garnish, so vegetarian friends could eat these as well (without the garnish). So for the cakes that I made, which made a batch of about a dozen, you need:

2 and 3/4 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup maple syrup

3 eggs

1 cup milk

4 rashers streaky bacon

2 tbsp brown sugar

4 cups icing sugar

6 tbsp butter, softened

2 tbsp maple syrup

Here's the maple syrup that I bought for this recipe, it was quite expensive!

 Preheat oven to 175C. Mix the flour, oil and maple syrup in a large bowl then beat in the eggs and the milk. Spoon the batter into cupcake cases and bake for 15-18 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and meanwhile make the buttercream. Cream the butter and the icing sugar and add the maple syrup; spoon into a piping bag and pipe swirls on top of the cupcakes.

To make the candied bacon, place the brown sugar in a bowl and dip in the bacon, coating both sides. Grill until crispy and then leave to cool. When cool, crumble or chop into small pieces.

Sprinkle the candied bacon pieces on top of the cupcakes.

I really wasn't sure how these were going to taste but they went down very well at the Canada Day party and the first person to try one - someone I didn't know - said they were great!

 Stuck In The Tree is a bingo review site that is about having fun online and off; they are running a 'bakespiration' competition so I am sending them my cake in the hope they will include it in their gallery.