derryX’s Poutine

For Wrestlemania 28, I cooked a killer poutine with oven baked fries, and I dubbed the dish “Poutine even CM Punk would love” for the event, but it was just my take on poutine. My description for the dish was “Oven roasted russet potato wedges covered in sweet beef gravy and Maplebrook cheddar cheese bites.”

Just about all of the info you need is there except exactly how I generated crispy oven fries and how I went about making the gravy.

I preheated the oven to 450° F.

I cut a bunch of russet potatoes into wedges and placed them in some boiling water for 8 minutes; this step is essential otherwise the potatoes will remain soggy even though they brown in the oven.

After their bath, I drained them and tossed them scantly in some vegetable oil on an oven pan. I also liberally mixed some Maldon sea salt and Penzey’s ground black pepper. These baked on each side for about 15 minutes. You gotta use your discretion, though.

While they were baking, I laid out ingredients for the sweet gravy and got to work on that. This recipe is adapted from Nadia G’s Bitchen Kitchen: Cookin’ for Trouble.

In a small pan, I melted a half of a stick of butter with 4 tablespoons of all purpose flour and cooked this mixture for about six minutes to create a roux; I set this aside for a moment. In a small pot, I heated some olive oil and browned up 4 shallots (probably 6 minutes or so). I deglazed with about half a cup of my dad’s homemade wine, made from a mixture of moscato and concord grapes, and cooked that down for just under a minute. To that, I added four cups of beef stock, the leaves from about four thyme sprigs, 1.5 tsp brown sugar, some sea salt and ground black pepper. I whisked in my roux and let this cook down for about 15 minutes.

I had taken out my cheese curds to come to room temperature when I started cooking. I bought whole milk cheddar cheese curds made in Vermont by Maplebrook Fine Cheeses at The Meat House. On their own, these are amazing enough as just a snack.

To assemble the dish, I put some fries on a plate, scattered a handful of cheese curds over the fries, and smothered everything with the sweet gravy. Part of me wanted to toss the fries in the gravy instead, but the smothering technique allowed for more interactive distribution of gravy in every bite.

The gravy melts the cheese curds over the fries and just starts to penetrate the crispy exterior of the fries. This was truly delicious, and was a great appetizer for our evening.