 |
| Alberta in Red |
As I said in my last cry for help... er... post, we got married, bought a house, moved, dealt with terrible twos, sent my son into his freshman year in high school, and we are finally now, two years later, ready to get back to this great idea I had that we stopped making time for.
Our dart landed on Alberta, Canada this time, and we all kind of went, "Hm." Then, there were a bunch of jokes like, "What do Canadians eat, eh? What will this be aboot?" etc.
As it turns out, Canadians are much like us, in that their food tends to be a melting pot of foods from all over the world, but pretty consistently, we got "steak" or "ribs" for the Alberta region, as Alberta Beef, is apparently a thing. But you see, we live in Texas, and steak is a thing here, too, and that just didn't seem like much of a journey, so we pressed on - and surveyed friends as well.
We got some really interesting suggestions like "Kraft Dinner and Ketchup" and "Canadian Bacon" that were tempting for their ease, but we ultimately settled on Poutine and Meat Pie... oh - and Nanaimo Bars for dessert. None of us had ever had any of these dishes, so we figured with nothing to compare them to, we'd do alright. A healthy dinner, it was not, but it was moderate in difficulty and effort and somewhat exotic to our palates.
 |
| Accidental pro tip: If all your cutting boards are in the running dishwasher, you can use a paper plate to chop your onions - AND, BONUS - the rim of the plate will keep your onions together so you can chop them finer and get any pieces you cut too big without pushing them off the cutting board, like usual. I am terrible at chopping onions. |
 |
| Simmering meat mixture |
The Meat Pie was pretty easy to make, actually, and the spices were unlike any other I have added to meat. The combination reminded me of Moroccan food, and was pretty good overall.
Modifications I made were that I used 1 lb pork and .5 lb ground beef, and I used one medium potato mashed, and one diced instead of one large mashed. Also, I MICROWAVED those potatoes, I didn't bake them, and I bought two frozen pie crusts and just let them thaw and used those, because have I mentioned that I'm a lazy cook?
I doubled the salt - but it still needed more, so taste the mix before you fill the pie and judge for yourself.
I pretty much followed everything else exactly on the pie.
 |
| Nice Pie! |
Now - onto the Poutine. I think we are the only people in America who haven't at least tried poutine. I mean - honestly - it sounds like punishment food to me. I enjoy french fries and gravy and cheese - but all together? It sounds a little york-inducing, but hey I'm supposed to get out of my comfort zone here, right?
So, I cheated a LOT on this recipe. I found a couple of different recipes and threw my own thing together, but I was most excited about trying his french fry method, as I have never been able to get them right. (spoiler alert: still no luck)
I did everything to specification - I cut and soaked the fries in cold water, dried them, and double fried them at two temps, but although they were tasty - they were soggy. The quest continues.
We found what are, I'm sure, very mediocre cheese curds at our grocery store, but if I wasn't going to make pie crust, I sure as heck was not going to make my own cheese curds, eh?
 |
| The 5 Stages of Fries |
Now for the gravy: I super duper cheated on the gravy and it was just fine. Was it the best gravy ever? No... was it good? sure was. I used Brown gravy packets from the store, added water and a little soy sauce and rice wine vinegar per the suggestions in the recipe, and voila! My work was done.
 |
| Big Plate for the Teenager |
 |
| Little Plate for Me |
The family really enjoyed dinner. We all agreed that it was "different" but not "bad different." I liked the pie more than the poutine, but I think the guys liked the poutine more. My son noted that you must take a bite of french fry with gravy AND cheese curd in each bite or your enjoyment will be diminished. Our toddler disagreed and definitely liked the fries alone above all else. I think we would all eat either of these again - but maybe not together.
 |
| A Little Square of Sin |
We had a little coffee with them and learned some things about Alberta:
Alberta became a province in 1905 and is named after Queen Victoria's daughter. Its capital is Edmonton.
Here are the links to the recipes I used/modified:
Meat Pie
Quick Poutine
Poutine - From Scratch
Nanaimo Bars
And possibly, a better fry technique?:
Perfect Fries
We had planned to also watch a movie from Canada, Strange Brew, perhaps - but NFL preseason started last night, so we let Hubs have a pass. Maybe next time - whenever that may be, but hopefully monthly from now on!
P.S. I'll let you know if we ever try that Mac & Cheese with Ketchup!
Dartmap Pinterest Board
Comments
Post a Comment