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.

 

Cheesy Chips with Bacon and Onion

Ever since I went to the Diner in Spitalfields I've been daydreaming about their fries with crispy onion, bacon bits, cheese and burger sauce. I've never had anything like it - incredibly calorific but they tasted amazing. Often when you get cheesy chips in this country, they have had cheddar melted over them, and left to harden, so you end up with most of the chips plain, and a few with congealed cheese on them - not something I particularly like. At the Diner however the cheese stayed melted- it was more like a sauce. I was aware you could buy something called Cheez Whiz in America which is a sauce in a jar that you could use on chips if you wanted, but I didn't think you could get anything like that in the UK. Until I saw this Squeeze Cheese online - I think it was on Tesco's website but I can't find it there any more, though I think you have also been able to get it in Sainsbury's. You can heat the bottle in the microwave so you can squeeze it out, but it still comes out like toothpaste which is a bit strange so I then had to spread it a little - and to be honest I wasn't a big fan of the artificial taste.

I did the bacon and onion to go with it, in this new frying pan I was sent for review - the Green Earth frying pan by Ozeri. Aside from the fact that I love the colour this is a brilliant pan. It's 20cm which is a little smaller than my other frying pans but just right if you are cooking for one or two people and don't want to waste energy heating a bigger pan that is half empty.

It has a natural ceramic coating so is non-stick and a better conductor of heat than other pans but has no harmful chemicals. It works on my induction hob which is great.



It has an unusual textured surface which apparently makes the food less likely to stick and to cook evenly; it made a good job of my bacon and onions!

I cooked the chips in the oven and when they were ready squeezed over some of the cheese and spread it around a little, and chopped the bacon and onion and sprinkled it over the top. I realised afterwards it wasn't quite the same as I'd had in the Diner as I forgot the burger sauce! And as I said I don't think the cheese was as nice as whatever they used. This is definitely an occasional treat and not something you should have every time you had chips, but as we had this on a Saturday evening before the cinema - when my boyfriend would have preferred to go out to a burger restaurant - I didn't think it would do too much harm. Back on the salads tomorrow!

Thanks to Ozeri for sending me the frying pan to review. All opinions are my own.

Slimming World Pizza-Topped Chicken

 This recipe was adapted from one in Slimming World magazine; it really is delicious and you wouldn't know it's a 'diet' meal. Even my boyfriend loved it!

To serve two, you need:

2 chicken breasts

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

200g tinned chopped tomatoes

1 tsp tomato puree

1/2 tsp oregano

80g low fat hard cheese, grated

Fry Light

Preheat oven to 200C. Fry the onion and garlic in the Fry Light then add the tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and oregano and cook for a few minutes until the mixture has thickened and reduced. Spread over the chicken breasts.

small clove of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp stock

2 vine tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 tbsp tinned tomatoes

1 tsp tomato puree

1 tsp oregano

1 chicken fillet

Low calorie oil spray (less than one calorie per spray)

40g low fat hard cheese, grated

1 cherry tomato, halved

Fresh basil, roughly chopped

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/pizza-topped-chicken.aspx#sthash.G7f26vnL.dpuf

small clove of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp stock

2 vine tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 tbsp tinned tomatoes

1 tsp tomato puree

1 tsp oregano

1 chicken fillet

Low calorie oil spray (less than one calorie per spray)

40g low fat hard cheese, grated

1 cherry tomato, halved

Fresh basil, roughly chopped

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/pizza-topped-chicken.aspx#sthash.G7f26vnL.dpuf

small clove of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp stock

2 vine tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 tbsp tinned tomatoes

1 tsp tomato puree

1 tsp oregano

1 chicken fillet

Low calorie oil spray (less than one calorie per spray)

40g low fat hard cheese, grated

1 cherry tomato, halved

Fresh basil, roughly chopped

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/pizza-topped-chicken.aspx#sthash.G7f26vnL.dpuf

small clove of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp stock

2 vine tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 tbsp tinned tomatoes

1 tsp tomato puree

1 tsp oregano

1 chicken fillet

Low calorie oil spray (less than one calorie per spray)

40g low fat hard cheese, grated

1 cherry tomato, halved

Fresh basil, roughly chopped

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/pizza-topped-chicken.aspx#sthash.G7f26vnL.dpuf

Place the chicken in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the grated cheese over the top.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the cheese has melted.

I served these with Slimming World chips, which are made simply by slicing potatoes into chips, spraying with Fry Light and baking in the oven for about 45 minutes-1 hour, depending on the thickness and length of the chips. A delicious meal that feels a lot naughtier than it is!