Lac Lac Poutine

Earlier I told you a bit about a cache of Lac Lacs or "Deceiver" mushrooms that I'd come across in my cupboard. I'd decided to turn those dried little treasures into a gravy, make some French fries and put together a Quebec classic: Poutine.

--- The Recipe ---

The Ingredients (approximates):

- Dried Lac Lacs.......... 1/2 cup

- Chicken Stock........... 1 cup

- Mushroom Water*......... 1/2 cup

- Onion................... 1

- Garlic.................. 1 clove

- Cooking oil............. 1 tbsp

- Sage.................... pinch

- Bay leaf................ 1

- Corn Starch............. 1 tbsp

- Baking Potato........... 1

- Cooking oil............. 2 cups

- Cheese curds............ 1/2 cup

- Salt

- Big bowl of ice water

*Mushroom water is water left over from rehydrating dried mushrooms. In this case I used some mushroom water that I'd frozen after rehydrating some fairy ring mushrooms.

The Process:

Combine the stock and mushroom water and warm just above room temperature. Add the dried mushrooms to the stock mixture let them rehydrate for 5 minutes.

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Cook onion and garlic in tablespoon of oil until just soft (10 minutes or so). Add stock mixture and mushrooms, careful not to pour any sand or grit that may be resting at the bottom of the mixture into the pot. Add sage and bay leaf. Add the corn starch and stir to desired thickness. If you'd like, you can use a hand blender to smooth out the gravy at this point.

Chop the potatoes into French fry portions. Soak the uncooked fries in the bowl of ice water for 10 minutes. This will eliminate some of the starch which keeps the potato pieces from sticking to each other during the frying process. Heat the two cups of oil to 350ºF. Dry the potato pieces and then carefully submerge them in hot oil for about five minutes. Remove from oil and salt the fries.

Assemble the pouting by putting the fries in a bowl, topping with the cheese curds and then coating with gravy.

Poutine is a pretty simple treat but it can be done up any number of ways. You're really only limited by the number of wild mushroom gravies that you can dream up!