I still remember the first time I tried Canadian Poutine. I was on a high school trip to Québec City, Canada. At this time Poutine was only available in the province of Québec and rarely heard of elsewhere. I remember sitting down in the fast food restaurant and digging into what is essentially golden French fries topped with cheese curds and savoury gravy. The squeekiness of the cheese curds mixed with the hot, rich gravy over one of my favourite foods was a treat for the taste buds. 
Since then poutine has become popular across the rest of Canada, with major fast food chains serving it up (this was how I introduced it to my husband in western Canada) and it’s now into the USA and is making an international name for itself.
You can use deep-fried or oven-baked French fries, but we like to make our own healthy fries! We use the recipe for our Andean Spicy Fries, but leave out the cayenne pepper (of course, feel free to experiment and you can have spicy poutine).
Ingredients for Canadian Poutine Sauce:
- 2 TBSP Cornstarch (Corn flour)
- 2 TBSP water
- 2 TBSP Butter
- 2 TBSP Flour
- 1 tsp Onion granuals (not onion salt), or use 1 minced shallot or green (spring) onion if you have one available)
- 1 tsp Garlic granuals (not garlic salt), or use 1 minced garlic clove.
- 2 Cups Beef Stock
- 1/2 TBSP Vinegar
- 1/2 TBSP Black Peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp Worcester Sauce sauce
- salt and ground pepper to taste
- cheese curds (if you’re like me and can’t find these locally, then you may substitute some grated mozzerella cheese)
Canadian Poutine Instructions:
1) Mix the cornstarch and water together will in a cup and set aside.
2) If you have the beef stock already prepared, great. If you don’t, this is the time to do it.
3) Stir the butter and flour together in a pot over medium/high heat for about 2 minutes.
4) Mix in the shallot and garlic and stir for another 2 minutes. Don’t let it burn.
5) Add the beef stock, vinegar, peppercorns and Worcester sauce and boil your poutine sauce for about 5-6 minutes to thicken.
6) If your poutine sauce needs more thickening then slowly add a little of the cornstarch and water mixture you made earlier. Add a little and stir for a minute for it to thicken. Continue until you get the consistency you’re looking for (personal preference).
7) Add a little salt and pepper if needed.
8) Keep it warm until your french fries are done. When your French fries are nicely golden, plate them up and top with some cheese curds or mozzarella cheese and spoon the poutine sauce over the top to melt the cheese. You can strain the peppercorns out of the gravy sauce if you don’t want to eat them.
9) Dig in and enjoy!
We enjoy serving chicken fingers with our poutine, but you can have it with a burger, steak, or anything you can think of. I’m so glad we can now make our own Canadian poutine. It’s free from preservatives, and we don’t have to carefully ration out the packets of poutine mix my sister sends over from Montreal.
If you’d like to see more recipes, mosey on over to our breakfast, lunch, dinner, multicultural, and snacks & deserts pages. Or see our Canada page for other crafts and ideas.
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