Poutine? I did it my way!

Kids (and adults!) are always raving about Poutine, asking me to make it for lunch but I just don't get the attraction. I mean, potatoes, cheese, gravy. What's the big deal? Seems like it's Quebec's national (wishful thinking) dish. It certainly is popular not only in Quebec but all over the place. Even KFC has the stuff! Their version of it anyway. Probably made from a secret recipe with 11 different chemicals and additives! I was inspired recently though by an appearance by Chuck Hughes on Iron Chef America. He made his version of Poutine while competing against Bobby Flay, and he won! With Poutine against one of the best Iron Chefs ever! So I thought I would give my own version a try and this is what I came up with.
I wanted to make a really rich gravy so I started with short ribs. I braised them nice and slow until they were just about falling off the bone then let them cool overnight in their own cooking liquid. I wanted to serve some roast striploin with it so I used the trim from that to make a bit more stock then let that cool overnight as well.
The next day I removed the short rib meat from the bones pulling off all the trim and breaking the meat up in small peices. I started a roux in a large pot then added the bones, the stock and the braising liquid from the short ribs with other flavouring ingredients like garlic, onions, herbs and spices, tomato paste etc. I also reduced about a half bottle of red wine I had left over from the night before and added that to the pot. It cooked for about two hours, simmering slowly and thickening up nicely while developing a really rich meaty flavour.
In the meantime I put on some oven roasted potatoes to take the place of the fries. Lots of my special Northern Smoke seasoning blend, fresh thyme, onions and garlic and roasted to perfection! The strip loin was in the oven roasting with the potatoes, almost done...
I strained my gravy and added the short rib meat back to it, sort of like a beef stew but more gravy than meat if you know what I mean. A freind of mine brought over 4 of those little bottles of port, you know the ones you find in the mini bar of your hotel room or like they serve you on the plane? Anyway I dumped those in and checked the seasoning and called it done. Very rich and meaty flavour!
And for the plate, a few roasted potatoes, a generous sprinkle of cheese curds, lots of gravy with bits of short ribs in it and a slice of roasted striploin to finish it off! Now that's poutine!! My Way!!
It was so good I did it again the next day but left off the strip loin and added some grilled veggies! Yummy!

Fish Fry, Northern Style.

Every once in a while I have the opportunity to cook in a setting that's a little more challenging than my kitchen. A few weeks ago I went with a group of friends to check fish nets set up on Great Slave Lake, about 10 km out of Yellowknife. It was a great day with plenty of sunshine and fairly mild temperatures. There were about 20 people there, riding out on nearly as many snow machines.
When we arrived at the site it was pretty quick work for the guys to pull up the nets. We were rewarded with about 20 whitefish, 2 lake trout and 2 pretty big inconnu. Working quickly and skillfully, the 20 whitefish were filleted and readied for the pan. While they were doing this I was readying the pan and setting up the cooking station.
I brought with me buns, a bag of crispy cole slaw, a bowl of feta dill dressing (feta, mayo, sour cream, white balsamic vinegar, fresh lemon juice, fresh dill, salt and pepper) and a seasoned flour mix. The flour was flavoured with my own Northern Smoke spice blend with a bit of curry powder added for good measure. The whitefish fillets were dredged in the flour and fried in hot shortening. The fillets were then placed on the buns with a bit of the feta dressing on the bottom and topped with the cole slaw. This made for a pretty tasty sandwich. Of course, have that great fresh whitefish was what really made the meal. Having it on the frozen ice of Great Slave Lake made it, well, priceless!