Eating Around the World (From Home....And Gluten Free...): Canada

Welcome to Canada! The Nifty Niece took us here this week, and it was a great meal! I've always loved Canada. My best friend and I took four days and drove through part of Canada when I moved, and it was such a lovely drive with trees and rivers and lakes galore. According to Google, the population of Canada is 37.59 million people and the capital is Ottawa. When I was doing research for this project, I thought for sure that the food would involve maple syrup. Nope! I was shocked! Instead, the national dish is:

Poutine!

I laughed. Literally laughed. French fries with cheese curds and gravy? Really? But truly - this was the national dish. We also needed to find a dessert, and managed to sneak in some maple syrup there. Let me tell you, Butter Tarts are the way to go! Here's what we did:

POUTINE

5 Yukon Potatoes, cut into fries

Oil, for frying

Salt, to taste

5 oz Cheese Curds

Gravy, to taste

Cut the potatoes into fries. Soak them in warm water for 30 minutes, drain, and let set on paper towel for 10 minutes.
Heat oil to 285 degrees and fry potatoes for about seven minutes and remove.

We also used an air fryer - cooked some potato fries in the oven for 40 minutes - this also worked well.

Increase the heat to 350 degrees and fry the potato fries again, for about five minutes until they are crispy.
Drain the fries on paper towels and salt to taste.
Put fries on a plate, place cheese curds on top, and pour gravy over. Enjoy!

We made a pot roast to go with this meal, and used the pot roast gravy in this recipe as well

(Source: Poutine)

BUTTER TARTS

Shell:

1 Egg Yolk

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1 1/3 C plus 1/4 C Gluten Free Flour (I used Americas Test Kitchen blend)

1/3 C Brown Sugar

1/4 C Powder Sugar

1 tsp Xanthum Gum

1/4 tsp Salt

8 tbsp Butter, cut into pieces and chilled

2 tsp Ice Water

Whisk egg yolk and vanilla in a bowl.
Process flour, brown sugar, powder sugar, xanthum gum, and salt in a food processor for about 5 seconds.
Put butter in flour mixture and pulse for about 10 pulses until the mixture resembles sand.
While processor is running, add the egg yolk mixture and process until dough just comes together, about 15 seconds.
Add 1 tsp ice water and pulse until dough comes completely together. If it doesn't come together, add the second tsp of ice water.
Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap, and chill for an hour.
Remove dough about 10 minutes before ready to use.

Filling:

1/4 C Butter, softened

1/2 C Brown Sugar

1/2 C Maple Syrup

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Vinegar

Pinch of Salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Using a mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar until well-mixed.
Add the maple syrup, egg, vanilla, vinegar, and salt and mix until well combined.
Roll out the pastry dough until thin like a crust.
Use a biscuit cutter or small cup and cut out round circles, and line a muffin tin with the pastry shells (we used a mini-muffin tin. You can use a full-sized muffin tin if you'd like).
Fill each of the tarts about 3/4 full with the butter mixture.
Bake for 12 minutes.
Let the tarts stand for a few minutes.
Remove the tarts from the pan and enjoy!

(Source: Tart Shell Recipe and Butter Tarts)

The verdict? The poutine wasn't as bad as it sounds. If you think about it, you eat potatoes and gravy all the time, so why would this be strange? I don't know...something about eating french fries and gravy seems weird. And then adding cheese curds? But it worked surprisingly well! And the tarts were very good. Everyone enjoyed them! I'll let the Nifty Niece tell you about it:

Canadian food is very good. I really liked making the gravy because we made the gravy out of a pot roast's juices and added corn starch to make a gravy. The potatoes were fun to cut and fry. We air-fried some of the potatoes and oil-fried others. The butter tarts were good. Wait, no, They. Were. AMAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING. I really liked making the tart filling and dough. Getting the dough into the muffin tins was a little challenging but once I got the hang of it, it was easy to do. I think that you would like Canada's food.

She also included this picture of Canada, and thought you may enjoy it: