Roasted Asparagus and Mushroom Poutine

Asparagus and mushrooms are a fabulous combination, one that I never tire of using, and my latest creation is an asparagus and mushroom poutine. Poutine is a Canadian dish where french fries are topped with cheese curds and gravy. I figured that the asparagus would make perfect 'fries' and I could toss the mushrooms in along with the cheese curds and top everything off with a tasty mushroom gravy. I always enjoy roasting vegetables, it helps bring out more flavour, and so I decided to roast both the asparagus and the mushrooms for the poutine. For the gravy I started things out by soaking some dried porcini mushrooms in broth and I used them along with some shallots, garlic, thyme and soy sauce to ensure that the gravy was full of flavour. I have too say that this is one tasty poutine; I mean, you really cannot go wrong taking an amazing combo like asparagus and mushrooms and topping them with cheese and a tasty gravy!

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Gnocchi Poutine with Short Rib Ragu

While I was enjoying the braised short rib ragu over polenta I remembered seeing a gnocchi poutine with ox tail gravy on a restaurant menu a long time ago that I had wanted to try. Poutine in a Canadian dish from Quebec consisting of french fries topped with cheese curds and a piping hot gravy. Poutine shops across Canada experiment with poutine all the time and one thing that is often done is adding various forms of meat so a poutine with an oxtail gravy, or in this case a braised short rib ragu was not a far stretch. If you can change the topping why not swap one potato product in for another potato product, gnocchi? Luckily the three pounds of short ribs that went into the ragu made for a decent amount of leftovers and I made sure to save the last for this poutine and it was well worth it! The light and fluffy yet chewy potato gnocchi worked really well when covered in melting cheese curds and the oh so tasty braised short rib ragu. You really cannot go wrong adding a stringy melted cheese to an already great dish! I served the gnocchi poutine with short rib ragu with a gremolata topping to keep things nice and bright and fresh.

Gnocchi Poutine with Short Rib Ragu and Gremolatta

Soft and chewy potato gnocchi covered with a tasty braised short rib ragu and melting cheese curds.

Servings: makes 1 serving

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup gnocchi, cooked and still hot
• 1/4 cup cheese curds, room temperature
• 1/2 cup braised short rib ragu, hot
• 1 tablespoon gremolata

Directions

1. Pour the ragu over the gnocchi and cheese curds and garnish with the gremolata.

Similar Recipes:
Corned Beef Poutine with Guinness Gravy
Poutine with a Mushroom Gravy
Braised Short Rib Ragu on Gnocchi
Braised Short Rib Ragu on Polenta
Roasted Asparagus and Mushroom Poutine

Poutine with a Mushroom Gravy

The other day I was reading an article on the best places to get poutine in Toronto and ever since I have been craving it. Poutine is a dish consisting of french fries topped with fresh cheese curds and smothered in hot gravy. Now this is certainly not the healthiest meal around so I do not eat it very often but it is so good that I just have to have it every once in a while. With poutine, you want to use the best ingredients that you can including homemade french fries and the freshest cheese curds that you can find. The gravy is where all of the flavour is so you can go to all out on it and make a really rich and tasty one. Classic poutine uses a simple, though flavourful, gravy but I wanted to try something new this time and I went with a mushroom gravy. I started the mushroom gravy by sauteing some onions along with the mushrooms and then I started layering on flavours with garlic, thyme and a splash of red wine. From there I made a roux and then thinned everything out to the consistency of gravy with broth. The mushroom poutine was so amazingly good! I have to say that this is now my favourite poutine and given the mushroom addict that I am this is not too much of a surprise.

Poutine with a Mushroom Gravy

(makes 2 servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 servings fries (see below, hot)
1 cup cheese curds (room temperature)
1 cup mushroom gravy (see below, hot)

Directions:
1. Serve the fries topped with the cheese curds and mushroom gravy.

Mushroom Gravy

(makes 2 servings)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion (diced finely)
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces mushrooms (cleaned and sliced)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1/2 teaspoon thyme (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup red wine (or broth)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken, beef or vegetable broth

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
3. Add the butter to the pan and let it melt.
4. Add the mushrooms and saute until they start to caramelize, about 20 minutes.
5. Add the garlic and thyme and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Add the wine, deglazed the pan and let it simmer.
8. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a sauce pan and allow it to get bubbly and start to brown.
9. Mix in the flour and allow it to simmer until it starts to brown.
10. Mix in the mushrooms.
11. Slowly mix in the broth until the gravy comes to the desired consistency.

Baked Fries

(makes 2 servings)

Ingredients:
1 potatoes, I used russet (scrubbed clean or peeled and cut into your favorite french fry shape)
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Toss the potato pieces in the oil and season with salt.
2. Place the potato pieces on baking sheet in a single layer.
3. Bake in a preheated 400F oven until golden brown and crispy on all sides, about 30-45 minutes flipping them every 15 minutes.

Similar Recipes:
Corned Beef Poutine with Guinness Gravy
Sweet Potato Poutine
Green Bean and Mushroom Poutine
French Fries
Feta Fries

Green Bean and Mushroom Poutine

The next thing that I came across while cleaning out my freezer was some leftover gravy from the pot roast that I made a while ago. As soon as I found the gravy memories of the sweet potato poutine came back and I was craving more. I remembered hearing about a vegetable version of poutine that replaced the fries with other vegetables. I was thinking that this was a good idea and the first thing that came to mind was green beans as they have a shape that is similar to fries. Some sauteed mushrooms sounded like they would finish off the dish nicely. The green bean and sauteed mushroom poutine turned out great! I guess you really can't go wrong with smothering any vegetable with cheese curds and tasty gravy. The green beans make this decadent treat just a bit leas unhealthy than the fries would have been. :)

Green Bean and Mushroom Poutine

(makes 2 light meal sized servings or 4 appetizer/side dish sized servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces mushrooms (sliced)
1 pound green beans
1 cup cheese curds
1 cup gravy

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a pan.
2. Add the mushrooms and saute until just starting to caramelize, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Add the green beans and saute until tender, about 3-5 minutes. (Or steam the green beans until tender.)
4. Heat the gravy in a pan until boiling.
5. Split the green beans, sauteed mushrooms, cheese curds between two plates and top with the piping hot gravy.

Similar Recipes:
Corned Beef Poutine with Guinness Gravy
Poutine with a Mushroom Gravy
Sweet Potato Poutine
Green Bean Casserole
Green Beans in Spicy Peanut Sauce
Green Beans in a Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Deconstructed Green Bean Casserole
Green Bean, Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Tart

Sweet Potato Poutine

It had been far too long since I had last had poutine and I was craving it! Poutine is a Canadian dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds and gravy. How can you go wrong with French fries, cheese and gravy? The sauce or gravy that was leftover from braising the pot roast that I had made earlier was really tasty and I was thinking that it would be perfect to use to make some poutine. I headed out to the cheese monger at the St. Lawrence Market as soon as possible to pick up some fresh cheese curds imported from Quebec which are supposed to be very good for poutine. I had been wanting to try a sweet potato poutine and since I had really enjoyed the baked sweet potato wedges that last time that I had made them I decided to go with therm instead of French fries. My baked sweet potato wedge poutine turned out great! The baked sweet potatoes wedges were crispy on the edges and soft and warm and good on the inside. The cheese curds melted nicely but not too much on the sweet potato wedges and smothered in the super tasty gravy. The sweetness of the potatoes went really well with the saltiness of the cheese and gravy. Each bite transports you to another place, a place of complete enjoyment and contentment. I will have to make poutine more often, though not too often. :)

Note: One of the tricks to making good poutine is to assemble it while the fries and gravy are still piping hot so that the cheese curds begin to melt.

Sweet Potato Poutine

(makes 2 servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound baked sweet potato wedges (hot)
1 cup cheese curds
1 cup gravy (hot)

Directions:
1. Place the hot sweet potato wedges on a plate and top with the cheese curd and gravy.

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

Ingredients:
1 pound sweet potatoes (cut into wedges lengthwise)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Toss the sweet potato wedges in the oil, salt and pepper to coat.
2. Place the wedges, skin side down, on a baking sheet.
3. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until golden brown and tender, about 30 minutes.

Simple Gravy

I prefer to use the gravy from a roast but if I have that poutine craving and I don't have any on hand then you can make a simple one out of a roux and some stock as follows. I still had about a cup of the pot roast gravy left over so I froze it for the next time the craving hits.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon soy sauce (optional)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.
2. Mix in the flour.
3. Mix in the beef broth and simmer to reduce by half.
4. Mix in the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Similar Recipes:
Corned Beef Poutine with Guinness Gravy
Poutine with a Mushroom Gravy
Green Bean and Mushroom Poutine
Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges
French Fries

Nanaimo Bars

Another one of my favorite holiday treats are nanaimo bars. Nanaimo bars are another Canadian dessert and they consist of a chocolate and coconut wafer layer topped by a a layer custard butter icing and a layer chocolate. I really like the chocolate, coconut and custard combo and these chilled treats are always welcome. I had not had a nanaimo bar in a long time and I thought that it would be great to make my own this year. Since this was my first time making nanaimo bars I decided to stick with the standard recipe that seems to be everywhere on the web. As I was making the bars I was thinking that it would be nice to try tweaking the flavours in the different layers and I was thinking about mint in particular; though I will save that for another time. Because there are three layers that each required time to chill before the next layer can be added these bars take a bit of time to make. Despite the time needed they are super easy to make and well worth the effort. The nanaimo bars turned out great, just like I remembered them. I like to eat the nanaimo bars chilled, directly from the fridge but, they are also really good at room temperature. These bars also freeze well so you can make them ahead of time and store them until needed. I like to keep them in the freezer and pull one out at a time to snack on whenever I feel like one.

Ingredients:

Base
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)

Filling
1/3 cup butter (room temperature)
3 tablespoon custard powder (or vanilla pudding powder)
1/4 cup milk
3 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)

Topping
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Base
1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2. Stir in the sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.
3. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract and remove from heat.
4. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, coconut and walnuts.
5. Press into a greased 8 inch square pan and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Filling
1. Cream the butter.
2. Beat in the custard powder and milk.
3. Beat in the sugar slowly.
4. Spread over the the base layer and chill in the fridge until it sets.

Topping
1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a pan and stir until smooth.
2. Spread over the filling layer and chill in a fridge until the chocolate begins to harden.
3. Score the chocolate where you will cut it into bars and chill in the fridge.
4. Before the chocolate hardens, cut into bars. (Use an hot knife and wipe clean after each cut.)

Similar Recipes:
Rolo Cheesecake Bars

Maple Butter Tarts

Another one of my favorite holiday treats is butter tarts and I could not let the holiday season go by without having some. Butter tarts are a Canadian pastry consisting of butter, sugar and eggs in a pastry shell. The tarts would be perfectly fine just like that but I like to add raisins and chopped walnuts as that is they way that my grandmother always made them. This time I thought it would also be nice to make them with some maple syrup. The maple butter tarts were amazing! The pastry was nice and golden brown and light an flaky and melt in your mouth good. The filling was nicely set and sweet and gooey and oh so good! The maple syrup added a great new flavour to the tarts and I will definitely be using it again. Butter tarts are another treat that freezes well so you can make them ahead of the holidays to lighten the load during that busy time. Frozen butter tarts also make a great gift; I know I always enjoyed receiving a large container of frozen butter tarts from my grandmother to take back with me after the holidays.

Ingredients:
1 pie crust pastry (chilled)
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
1/2 cup raisins

Directions:
1. Roll the pastry out to 1/8 inch thick and cut out 12 4-5 inch circles.
2. Press the circles of dough into a muffin baking pan.
3. Chill the muffin pan in the fridge for 45-60 minutes.
4. Mix the egg, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter,vanilla extract, salt, walnuts and raisins in a bowl.
5. Pour the mixture into the tarts.
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven and bake until set, about 15-25 minutes.

Similar Recipes:
Maple Pecan Pie
Maple Snickerdoodles
Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

Other Maple Recipes