This side dish, treat, indulgence is inspired by the French-Canadian dish called Poutine. Poutine is basically French Fries topped with cheese curds (white or orange) and finished with a ladle or two of hot gravy. This dish is not a heart-healthy one and it should be made sparingly but we’re upon the Christmas holidays, some indulgence IS expected and certainly allowed. A Poutine-type dish will not win any dietary awards but it will more than make up for it with it’s simplicity and deliciousness.

Poutine was born in a diner in Quebec: rib-stickin’ goodness for the working class and in keeping with theme, the Makalo (sauce) in my version adheres to the humble theme of the dish. Makalo is basically a gravy made best with the brown bits from frying up keftedes and then a roux is added into the pan and soon deglazed with stock or water and spiked with spices to end up as a flavourful sauce that’s ideal for complementing eggs, Keftedes, sausages, dunking bread into it or French Fries.

Makalo has it’s origins in Greece’s northernmost province of Macedonia (where my family is from) and for as long as I can remember, my mom whipped-up a Makalo for my dad. Why…I remember my dad making Makalo for himself too! The final component of today’s recipe is the cheese, Halloumi in this case. The Halloumi cheese is recommended as it’ shares many of the same characteristics as the cheese curds used in Poutine: both cheeses are stringy, briny, melt well and the cheese makes a squeaking noise against your teeth when you chew it. I LOVE IT! Halloumi cheese has it’s origins in the island of Cyprus and it’s a PDO product. Look for “HALLOUMI” on the label for the Cypriot authentic product.

Isn’t a dish a success when you stimulate all the senses? The Makalo smells wonderful simmering and thickening on the stove-top with aroma of the smoked Paprika from Thessaloniki that I brought back, it’s a dish you can feel as it’s best eaten with your hands, the trio of French Fries, gooey cheese just slightly melted by the aromatic Makalo sauce excites the eye and finally, crispy Fries seasoning with sea salt and dried Greek oregano, briny Halloumi cheese (the squeaky cheese) and smoky, thick Makalo as the sauce.

I think know I will this once again over the holidays!

Fries, Makalo & Melted Halloumi (Πατατες Τηγανιτες, Μακαλο & Λιωμένο Χαλλούμι)

(serves 4)

4 large Yukon Gold (yellow) potatoes, peeled and cut into long, thickish slices

sunflower oil for frying

coarse sea salt

dried Greek oregano

paper towels

1 cup Halloumi  cheese, cubed (look for it at Greek/Cypriot grocers, Middle-Eastern delis and some supermarkets)

1 Makalo recipe

1. For the Makalo sauce/gravy, over medium-high heat, add the oil and flour to a large skillet and stir constantly with a wooden spoon to cook the flour and toast it a bit. Continue to stir until the roux has turned to a light brown colour. Add the tomato and paprika, simmer for a few minutes to cook through and thicken.
2. Add about 1 cup of oil to a pot/fryer per potato and heat to a temperature of 365F. I prefer the method of twice frying the potatoes. Fry the potatoes for 1o minutes, remove from the oil with  slotted spoon and allow them to cool. Reheat your oil to 365F and fry the potatoes (a second time) until golden-brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate lined with paper towels to blot excess oil. Season with coarse sea salt and a pinch of dried Greek oregano.
3. Time to bring the dish together: Place your Fries in a bowl or shallow plate and top with some cubed Halloumi cheese and then ladle over the hot Makalo. Allow the for the cheese to melt a bit before serving.

Try some Feta Fries

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© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis

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Us Canadians get to view a diet of American produced shows, some cooking shows from the UK and Down Under and then we round things out with the Canadian produced shows.

One of the Canadian cooking/TV personas is Ricardo Larivee, from Montreal, Quebec where French is the more dominant language. Ricardo’s first language is French and it’s evident when you hear him on the show but who gives a flying-F when the language of food is what matters.

The show is titled “Ricardo and Friends” and in each episode he entertains and lays out a full menu that ends up being enjoyed by his latest entourage of guests. Interspersed in the show are visits by Ricardo to local suppliers like farms, shops and other sources of inspiration for his dishes.

I’ve tried a few of Ricardo’s dishes and they turn out just fine. You’d think in this day and age that everyone would actually test-out and proof a recipe. A tried, tested and true recipe is paramount and Ricardo’s dishes deliver.

Which brings me to the focus of today’s post, Ricardo’s Spiced Pear Cake. Like all food, the dish should catch your eye…I fell in love with this dish when I saw the cross-section of the cake with the pear embedded in it.

The aroma of this cake will warm your kitchen and remind you of mulled spices.

The taste is well, simply satiating. Perfect for an afternoon tea or coffee and those with a seasoned palate will be able to pick out the spices in this easy to make cake that will surely have your guests asking for the recipe.

GO ON…make the cake, share it and enjoy over a coffee with friends. In my opinion, this is a make-ahead cake. Bake it the day before, allow to cool for an hour, DO line the loaf pan with parchment and lift out the cake it.

Transfer to a cooling rack and once cooled, cover overnight. Since the poached pears are denser than the cake, be careful transferring to your serving plate (you don’t want your pears to fall through).

I slid the cake off the parchment and onto the platter, dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon and carefully sliced the cake, giving each person a piece with an exposed pear slice for presentation.

Is it coffee time?

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at  http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

© 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

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Canada is a nation of the Native peoples, the French and English majority and the multicultural mosaic that’s made up of all the other ethnicities.

I’m grateful for the opportunity Canada gave to my parents and my family to begin a new life where hard work was rewarded, that one could achieve any goal if they set their mind to it, a country full of tolerance, peaceful and safe.

Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict emailed me to see if I was interested in participating in a food event that captured the essence of Canadian flavours and foods.

Canada has some of the best that International cuisine has to offer and this is large part due to the rich tapestry of ethnicities within our borders.

After asking my parents and brother what food(s) captured the essence of Canada’s food…a unanimous reply was French Fries and Gravy.

What’s unique about Canada’s fries & gravy is the Montreal specialty of Poutines. Poutines are basically a dish of french fries, cheese curds and gravy.

This dish will NOT appear on the menu of any diets currently being exercised but you only live once, life’s not a dress rehearsal and Poutines are too damn delicious to not indulge in every now & then.

Cheese curds have the combined texture of Mozzarella and Halloumi and although widely available in Canada, some difficulty will be had in finding them elsewhere.

What you need here are french fries, cheese curds (Mozzarella is the closest alternative) and a deep brown gravy made from a rich beef stock.

There’s no real recipe here other than to do your French Fries properly, seek out cheese curds and make a kick-ass, deeply flavourful and thick beef gravy.

Happy Canada Day!

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For those not in the know, Canada is a bilingual country where our two official languages are French and English. Most of the Francophones live in the province of Quebec and some families can trace their roots to the first settlers in North America.

English and French Canadians are similar yet different. I won’t get into Canadian politics but French-Canadians are a unique bunch. Did you know that advertisers have to devise totally separate campaigns for Quebecers? They do have varying tastes: prefer Pepsi to Coke, a strange love of corn dogs, a sweet spot for rich snack cakes (Mae west) and they like to spread pork fat (Creton) on toast.

Beyond some of their quirky eating habits, the Quebecois also have a rich history of loving food and of having a wonderfully delicious local cuisine.

One of my favourite French-Canadian soups is the the Split Pea Soup. It’s a very simple dish but it requires one quality ingredient…a smoked ham hock.

At first, you wonder if this dish will amount to anything good but allow the simmering of the ham to extract all it’s flavour. This is one of my favourite soups for it’s ease in preparation, high taste factor and very comforting.

French-Canadian Pea Soup

1 smoked ham hock
one 16oz. package of yellow split peas
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
7 cups of water
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. ground pepper
1 bay leaf
salt to taste

1. In a large pot, add the water, ham hock, split peas, allspice, onions, carrots, peppercorns and bay leaf.
2. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook on medium-low heat for approx. an hour.
3. Remove the ham hock and bay leaf from the soup. Adjust seasoning of the soup with salt and pepper. Using your hand blender, puree the soup to the consistency of your choice (I left some peas in tact).
4. Using a fork and knife, scrap the meat off the bone and flake the meat into bite sized pieces. Add your ham meat back into the soup, stir in and serve hot.

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© 2008, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.