La Banquise

I heard about La Banquise a few years ago. I'll guess and say 2-3 years. It's basically what people in Montreal call the best poutine in town. I don't really know about that. I love poutine and it's the ultimate comfort food for me. I usually like the poutine at La Belle Province, specifically the one on Peel st.


La Banquise is a 24hr place that you can go for the classic poutine or special poutine. Sounds great doesn't it? So as I was saying, when I first heard about it, I wanted to go. But it was a bit out of the way and when I meet friends for dinner, poutine is not always our first choice. La Banquise is noisy and more of a fast food joint. People don't really stay and talk for 2 hours after the meal.


When my friend Christina was visiting from TO, I saw this as an opportunity to go. I mean, we gotta show outsiders what real poutine is. :)

For my first Banquise experience, I decided to try one of their special poutines. I chose the B.O.M. poutine. It's the classic poutine with bacon, sautéed onions, and mergues sausage. It was delicious! Christina has the Matty Poutine; classic poutine with bacon, peppers, mushrooms and sauteed onions. Rachelle had the Poutine Chouxxx; classic poutine with coleslaw. We were all pretty satisfied with our choices.

They also have burgers and stuff like that, but we didn't pay any attention to them. The poutines come in 2 sizes. We all ordered the small size and it was a pretty good sized plate. We saw some people with the large size and it's a giant bowl. Potato coma! I'd definitely go again if i'm in the area, but wouldn't make a special trip there. I'm equally satisfied with greasy Belle Province poutine near my work.

La Banquise / 994 Rachel East, corner of Lafontaine Park in Montreal / 514.525.2415

http://www.restolabanquise.com/

Foie Gras Poutine

I think i can credit my brother for many of my food knowledge. The only foie gras I knew was the foie gras pâté I would see at the grocery store, which is the lowest grade of foie gras you can find. My brother is a food connaisseur in my eyes. My first time enjoying foie gras the way it was intended, was at Au Pied de Cochon. It's a popular eatery in Montreal, and best known for their duck-in-a-can, which I have blogged about. People say you have to reserve weeks ahead for a table. I have been to PDC twice and had the Duck in a Can both times. I kind of regret not trying the foie gras poutine.

I was at the grocery store when I picked up a package of foie gras...certainly not the same quality as I could get at PDC I'm sure, but it was half the cost. So I bought it and found the recipe for PDC foie gras poutine online.

For the Foie Gras Sauce:

• 200 g (7 oz) fresh foie gras
• 6 x egg yolks
• 600 ml (2 ½ cups) PDC poutine sauce (available at the restaurant, or use store-bought poutine sauce)
• 50 ml (¼ cup) 35% m.f. cream

For the Foie Gras and Presentation of the Poutine:

• 4 slices slices fresh foie gras, 100 g (3 1/2 oz) each, 2 ½ cm (1 in) thick
• 400 g (14 oz) cheese curds
• 4 x white-fleshed potatoes (cut into French fries)
• Oil for frying (2/3 tallow and 1/3 peanut oil)

1. For the Foie Gras Sauce: Set aside 100 ml (½ cup of sauce for final presentation of the poutine. In a saucepan, bring the PDC poutine sauce to a boil.
2. Mix the egg yolks, foie gras and cream in a food processor at high speed.
3. Slowly add the 500 ml (2 cups) of hot poutine sauce to the mixture.
4. Pour into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until the sauce reaches 80°C (175 °F).
5. Remove the sauce from the heat. Stir for 30 seconds more. Keep warm.
6. For the Foie Gras and Presentation of the Poutine: Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F). In a very hot pan, sear the foie gras slices until they are golden brown. Transfer the slices to a baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes.
7. Cook the fries in the oil until crisp and place them on top of a mound of cheese curds in the middle of the plate.
8. Place a slice of seared foie gras on the fries and smother in the foie gras sauce.
9. Decorate with a few dabs of regular poutine sauce and serve immediately.
   

The dish was surprisingly easy to make. I have never handled foie gras before and I was honestly a little bit grossed out by how greasy and fattening it was. The piece I bought was small and I only had enough for one portion, which was actually perfect because Kevin was not home for this. So I estimated how much to use for the sauce and how much to sear to put on top of the poutine. I used about 2/3 of the piece for the sauce. My seared pieces were pretty small so I didn't need to cook them in the oven (step 6). And since I cut down on the ingredients on the recipe, it probably wasn't exactly the way it should be. I was simmering the sauce and trying to get it to reach 175 F, I stopped at 160F because the foie gras sauce was getting grainy from being overcooked. It lost its creamy texture. The poutine was still quite good, and would love to try the real PDC version. In the meantime, my $10 foie gras poutine was good enough. My favorite thing about the foie gras poutine was actually the seared foie gras on top. They were perfectly cooked and browned and absolutely delicious!

Au Pied de Cochon/536 East Duluth, Montreal/ 514.281.1114

http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/

More recipes from Martin Picard: http://www.foodtv.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=111324

Sweet Potato Poutine

Ahh Poutine! The ultimate comfort food. I've made poutine at home before, but I must admit that it wasn't from scratch. I used cubed mozza, frozen fries, and canned gravy. Sacrilege!!! I know. This is my very first time making everything from scratch...well...except the cheese curds. Those are store bought. lol

I got the idea to make poutine with sweet potato from Kevin at Closet Cooking. I get a lot of cooking ideas from him. He's very talented. For this recipe, I bought 2 huge sweet potatoes and I never knew how much sweet potatoes shrink when they cook... I also had a hard time cutting beautiful sweet potato wedges, so I had weird shapes. Wedges, strings, half moons...it was a circus of sweet potatoes. And sweet potatoes, especially the large variety, are extremely hard to cut. Kev saw how much trouble I was having and asked if i needed help. It didn't take him long to abandon me with the unfinished task.

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

• sweet potatoes (cut into wedges lengthwise)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven at 375F. Toss the sweet potato wedges in the oil, salt and pepper to coat.
2. Place the wedges on a baking sheet.
3. Bake until golden brown and tender, about 20-30 minutes.

For the Gravy:

• 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

1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.
2. Mix in the flour to make a roux.
3. Mix in the beef broth and simmer until thick and smooth.
4. Mix in the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
   

Assemble: Place the sweet potato wedges in a bowl and top with the cheese curd, add gravy on top to melt cheese a bit.

Kev wasn't a huge fan of this because he's not a big fan of sweet potato. I love it. I kept tasting the gravy while it was simmering and I just kept adding pepper into it. The sauce ended up being spicy, which is a not a bad thing. The simple gravy recipe is also good with roast chicken.