What is Poutine?
Poutine is a classic Canadian dish that traditionally consists of French fries topped with cheese curds and drizzled with gravy. It originated in Quebec in the 1950s and has grown in popularity to become a widely recognized dish. In fact, many people consider it to be Canada’s national dish. It has become so popular that there are now Poutine festivals held around the world.
Poutine is a guilty pleasure- not the healthiest dish but sure tastes good when you’re hungry and it’s cold outside!
Is this Recipe Traditional Poutine?
Well, no. In this culinary adventure, we mixed up the classical poutine recipe and added a few extra ingredients. Here are a few of the changes we made:
- We used an air fryer to make our French fries (we love using our Air Fryer. If you don’t have one yet or looking for other unique Air Fryer recipes check out our Air Fryer Guide at GradFood).
- We couldn’t find cheese curds at our grocery store so we just used a mozzarella ball that we tore into chunks.
- We took the liberty to add a few extra toppings to our Poutine including beef strips, sundried tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, cremini mushrooms, and an extra Parmesan cheese sauce.
Fun Facts about Potatoes
- Even though we only typically see a few varieties of potatoes at the grocery store, there are actually hundreds of different varieties of potatoes.
- While we like to associate potatoes with Ireland or Idaho, they were actually first cultivated by the Incan Indians in Peru, dating back to 8,000 BC
- Potatoes are technically tubers (vegetables that contain a lot of starch). Other tubers include Jerusalem artichokes, jicama, and yams.
- Sweet potatoes are actually not potatoes. They are actually classified as root vegetables and belong to the Morning Glory family (Convolvulaceae) .
Other GradFood Potato Recipes
If you liked this Canadian Poutine recipe, try out some other interesting ways to cook potatoes/sweet potatoes:
- Aloo Gobi (Potatoes & Cauliflower)
- Gorgonzola Parmesan Sweet Potato Fries
- Broccoli & Potato Gratin
- Gorgonzola Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes
Thoughts on Poutine
What are your thoughts on Poutine? Comment below if this is your favorite dish or whether you prefer a more traditional poutine or rather a loaded poutine like ours. Do you have any tips or tricks to making poutine? We’d love to hear from you!
The Ultimate Beef and Mushroom Poutine
Ingredients
Poutine
- 2 russet potatoes
- 2 bell peppers diced
- 3 tbsp sundried tomatoes
- 1 mozzarella ball or cheese curds if you can find them
- 1 package cremini mushrooms
- Garlic salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
Gravy
- ½ lb steak cut into thin strips
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 shallot
- 1 tbsp flour
Cheese sauce
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup half and half
- 1 tbsp butter
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
Instructions
- Cut potatoes into French fry-shaped strips. Wash them with water and dry completely with a paper towel. Toss them in a bowl with the spices and a touch of olive oil. Preheat air fryer and cook in two batches for about 15-16 minutes or until crispy on the outside (give it the basket a shake once in awhile).
- Meanwhile, use a large pan to sear steak on medium-high heat with a pinch of garlic salt. When it’s golden, add shallots with some olive oil and sauté for a minute. Now add beef stock and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered and stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened. To help speed up the thickening, you can mix a tbsp of flour with a tbsp of water and pour this slurry into the beef stock. When thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, drain the gravy into a bowl using a mesh strainer and set aside (save the beef too!).
- Also meanwhile, sauté the bell peppers and mushrooms with olive oil and a pinch of garlic salt. In another small pan, make cheese sauce but bringing half and half and butter to a simmer and then stirring in nutmeg and cheese until incorporated.
- Finally, assemble poutine by placing fries on a plate, adding bell peppers, mushrooms, steak, and sundried tomatoes. Spoon over gravy, drizzle with cheese sauce, and top with parsley. Serve warm.
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