Sweet Potato Poutine

For those of you who didn’t know, there’s such a thing in this wonderful world as poutine. As far as I can surmise, it is only found in Canada (though some asshole in Jersey is trying to pass off some bullshit Disco Fries as a facsimile when it is a totally different thing). Poutine is – wait for it – French fries topped with cheese curds and smothered with rich beef gravy. Did your arteries just slam shut in blissful “whatchoo talkin’ ’bout Willis” ecstasy? I thought so.

Scott and I hunted some down in Vancouver, but it wasn’t that great. It was kidney stone salty, and the gravy was runny and sogged the fries. I didn’t give it much more thought until yesterday, when I got a big old bee in my bonnet about poutine. I wanted desperately to eat poutine after going to the gym (hell, I wanted to eat it at the gym). Oh, this was on.

Last night I made my own, from scratch. With real squeaky cheese curds that took a phone call to source. And salty, homemade sweet potato steak fries for umami-sweet. And homemade gravy from beef and veal demiglace for consummate boner induction. This was so good, I feel like throwing an extra “motherfucking” in. Motherfucking.

It was incredibly fast and easy, too. I hand-cut the sweet potato into thick steak fries and microwaved them with a splash of water for 4 minutes to parcook (this saves a LOT of cooking time). Then I tossed them in a little vegetable oil and kosher salt and baked them at 450 for about 15 minutes. Whilst the fries were getting brown and crisped of edge, I whipped up hella fast gravy by spooning a couple globs of demi into a small pan and adding a jam jar of water shaken up with a few spoonfuls of flour. Simmer for 10 minutes until glossy and thick as a gravy wanna be.

We enjoyed this healthful dinner (it’s actually only like 250 calories for half of the whole bowl – not that I’m counting) with a nice green salad and ham-and-biscuit sliders. Oh don’t worry your pretty lil’ head, I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow. Also, stay tuned for future installments of my new poutine obsession. I’m thinking a post-Thanksgiving Poutine Galvaude with turkey confit.