- When the base of a dish starts with french fries
and then you smother those
in shredded beef, gravy, and cheese,
it's like a warm hug from our friends up north.
(upbeat music)
Well seasoned, crispy fries,
squeaky cheese curds, brown gravy,
and our upgrade is the addition of tender, shredded beef.
Sending a love note to Quebec, Canada
since they're the ones responsible
for this delicious creation.
This Canadian classic makes my list of ultimate indulgences.
We're making beef poutine.
Starting with a Certified Angus Beef round roast
because of course, if it's not Certified, it's not the best.
I start by trimming some of this fat off
and cutting it into smaller cubes
to get it ready for the slow cooker.
Just make sure that your cubes
are pretty similar in size for even cooking.
This cut is ideal for low and slow cooking.
So the crock pot is a fabulous place
to start with this recipe.
I'm seasoning with coarse salt and some black pepper.
And then with that, we go into the slow cooker
and start with our liquids.
So we're doing chicken stock and beef stock.
And that's it.
This is something that you put on
first thing in the morning before you start your day.
But knowing that this beef poutine
is waiting for you at the end of the day,
it really helps as a happy pick-me-up.
Now for this recipe, I'm going to choose
to make fresh french fries for my poutine,
but this is definitely something
you can easily substitute for a bag of frozen fries.
I just happen to have the time today.
I wash and I cut my potatoes,
leaving the skins on, as that's how I prefer my fries.
Give them a good soak and submerge them in some cold water
for about 30 minutes or even the day before is fine.
This will help remove the excess starches from the potato
and keep them from oxidizing.
After soaking, be sure to rinse.
This helps wash away any last bit
of that extra starch we mentioned earlier.
Dump them out onto a tea towel
or just maybe some paper towels even,
and give them a good pat just to dry them off a little bit.
And let's set up a heavy bottom pan for our deep frying.
A candy thermometer is key here.
This helps keep your oil
at a nice, even temperature for even frying.
So I preheat my oil to 325, keeping in mind
that there should be about one inch of oil
above the fries once they're plunged in.
Par cook your potatoes in batches
until they're light brown in color.
So this is about five to seven minutes.
And using a spider spoon, similar to this one,
or a slotted spoon works just as well,
transfer the fries onto a plate covered in paper towels
or another tea towel to help soak up
any of that excess oil.
Repeat until all the potatoes are par cooked.
So now that everything has been par cooked,
for our final fry, we raise the temperature
of the oil to 350 degrees.
And again, frying in batches,
cook your french fries for another three minutes
until golden brown and crispy.
Season with salt immediately,
because I love a crispy fry with my poutine.
Into a clean heavy pot,
I use my favorite yellow Dutch oven for this,
with the heat on medium,
ladle in your slow cooked Certified Angus Beef eye of round
along with all of that delicious stock we used to braise
and start to shred your eye of round.
I find that using a wire whisk
to gently break the beef apart works wonders for this.
So then we're gonna stir together
our cold water and our corn starch
in a small bowl on the side to create a slurry.
Once we add this to the simmering beef
and all of that yummy stock, this will thicken,
and instantly create our gravy for our beef poutine.
Slowly pour the slurry into the beef and whisk.
Now would be a great time to hit that subscribe button.
Build your poutine with the intention to layer.
Crispy, salty fries down first as the base.
And then next, add those squeaky cheese curds.
And then finally, a hearty amount
of our hot, shredded beef gravy.
This beautiful beef gravy
will slowly melt those cheese curds
and you are in for a true indulgence meal, my friends.
This looks incredible.
Can't wait to taste it.
(bright music)
This is the best way to indulge.
Thank you, Canada.
See you next time here in the Test Kitchen.