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So, the basis of any good poutine is obviously French fries, which you might be surprised to learn are made from potatoes. Now that we have our two to three pounds of russets here, we're gonna slice them into French fry shapes and you'll notice that I'm leaving the skins on this. This can make for a bit more of a rustic presentation and poutine is kind of a rustic dish.

Next up, we want to rinse all the starch off our potatoes. This is going to help them brown more evenly and prevent sticking down the line. Just keep rinsing them until the water runs clear, like this. Maybe most importantly, we need to dry these French fries thoroughly. I don't know if you've ever tried throwing something wet into hot oil but if you do, you're gonna have a bad time. Using a nice lint-free cloth like this one, we're gonna get these SuperDuper dry and then it's time to commence to the first stage of frying.

If you've ever watched this show before, you know the best way to make French fries is to double fry them in batches into a vat of 350-degree Fahrenheit vegetable oil. They go for about five to seven minutes until they're just starting to turn lightly blonde. This par-cooking process is going to mostly cook the potato through without getting it fully brown. This is the color we're looking for, just starting to turn a light Tony around the edges.

Once all the fries are fried and evacuated onto a paper towel line on the rimmed baking sheet, you can see I slightly overcooked a couple here. No biggie. We're gonna let these cool completely to room temperature and then place them in the freezer for at least four hours. This is going to make our French fry interiors nice and fluffy and creamy and it gives us a little bit of time to work on our gravy.

Now, in the past I've shown how to make a rich dark deeply flavored stock entirely from scratch but what if you want poutine now? Well, in that case, you can simply use some aromatics and fresh herbs to amp up some store-bought stock into a large saucepan. Goes a little glug of the cooking oil of your choice, which we're gonna heat over a medium-high flame until shimmering. Adding our vegetables to the pan, nice dark brown color we get on our veg the more flavor we're gonna add to our stock. You could also add some high-quality ground beef or chicken to the mix if you want to go really crazy but I'm just going with some onions, shallots, carrots, garlic, and ginger.

Once those are nice and brown, I'm going to add the carton of store-bought stock along with some fresh herbs. I'm thinking parsley and thyme get this guy up to a simmer and then cook for 1 hour before straining. This tip works great for amping up any store-bought stock and in this case, it's gonna help us make a gravy that tastes much more homemade.

Back into our large cleaned-out saucepan goes 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter which we're gonna bring to a bubble before adding 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Which we're gonna whisk and cook for about 1 minute until a light blond Roux is formed. Into which we are going to slowly stream our semi-homemade stock whisking constantly making sure no lumps or clumps form. This will help us create a smooth gravy.

To finish off the poutine, you'll need to cook it in your skillet and transfer it to your baking sheet. You can also top it with cheese curds if you prefer. Pour over your French fries and serve immediately. This is what we're going for here - crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, cheesy and saucy goodness.

Squarespace has been an amazing partner in bringing this show and my websites to life. They've got a really intuitive easy-to-use platform that made it super easy for someone like me who has never done web design ever. They have templates, they do domains, they have really good customer service - it's basically a one-stop-shop for building a really slick website. If you want to try it for yourself, you can start your free trial today at squarespace.com and enter an offer code babish to get 10% off your first purchase.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enbasics with babish and my website basics with babish comm are brought to you by Squarespace head there now to check out all the recipes from the show kitchen equipment lists and more get 10% off your first Squarespace order with offer code babish whether you need a domain website or online store make your next move with the Squarespace alright so the basis of any good poutine is obviously french fries which you might be surprised to learn are made from potatoes so now that we got to sell it two to three pounds of russets here we're gonna slice them into French fries shapes and you'll notice that I'm leaving the skins on this can make for a bit more of a rustic presentation and poutine is kind of a rustic dish next up we want to rinse all the starch off our potatoes this is going to help them Brown more evenly and prevent sticking down the line just keep rinsing them until the water runs clear like this then maybe most importantly we need to dry these french fries and thoroughly I don't know if you've ever tried throwing something wet into hot oil but if you do you're gonna have a bad time so using a nice lint-free cloth like this one we're gonna get these SuperDuper dry and then it's time to commence to the first stage of frying if you've ever watched this show before you know the best way to make french fries is to double fry them in batches into a vat of 350 degree Fahrenheit vegetable oil they go for about five to seven minutes until they're just starting to turn lightly blonde this par cooking process is going to mostly cook the potato through without getting it fully brown this is the color we're looking for just starting to turn a light Tony around the edges then once all the fries are fried and evacuated onto a paper towel line the rimmed baking sheet you can see I slightly overcooked a couple here no biggie we're gonna let these cool completely to room temperature and then place them in the freezer for at least four hours this is going to make our french fry interiors nice and fluffy and creamy and it gives us a little bit of time to work on our gravy now in the past I've shown how to make a rich dark deeply flavored stalks entirely from scratch but what if you want poutine now well in that case you can simply use some aromatics and fresh herbs to amp up some store-bought stock into a large saucepan goes a little glug of the cooking oil of your choice which we're gonna heat over a medium-high flame until shimmering adding our vegetables to the more nice dark brown color we get on our veg the more flavor we're gonna add to our stock you could also add some high-quality ground beef or chicken to the mix if you want to go really crazy but I'm just going with some onions shallots carrots garlic and ginger once those are nice and brown I'm going to add the carton of store-bought along with some fresh herbs I'm thinking parsley and thyme get this guy up to a simmer and then cook for 1 hour before straining this tip works great for amping up any store-bought stock and in this case it's gonna help us make a gravy that tastes much more homemade back into our large cleaned-out saucepan goes 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter which we're gonna bring to a bubble before adding 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour which we're going to whisk and cook for about 1 minute until a light blond Roux is formed into which we are going to slowly stream our semi-homemade stock whisking constantly making sure no lumps or clumps can form and then we're gonna amp up our gravies flavor with a few splashes of soy sauce and you know what it starts with a W sauce then of course we're gonna taste for seasoning this needs a great deal of salt and freshly ground black pepper whisk that on in there and then it's time to cook this down to our desired consistency I'm going for a consistency almost reminiscent of gravy set that aside and keep the warm because it's time to tear off little chunks of mozzarella and roll them into balls because we couldn't find cheese curds I know this is a really lame substitute but sometimes you don't live in Wisconsin or Quebec anyway now we've fetched our fries out of the freezer and into some 400 degree Fahrenheit oil they go until they are crisp and golden brown they're cook time is gonna depend entirely on how much you par-cooked them so just keep an eye on them then once everybody's cooked and it's been allowed to drain on a wire rack run and dump them into a large metal bowl and season liberally with kosher salts tossing gently and to ensure that we don't have any unsalted fries which are a huge bummer and then as you might imagine poutine assembly is a relatively simple process fries down first quote-unquote cheese curds on top of that Canadians please forgive me I didn't have to tell you the truth these look exactly the same and then our nice thick gravy poured over top the whole deal making the cheese softened but not melt and making the French fries half crisp and half soaked and meaty ribs sticking goodness I hope you guys give this one a try for yourselves and I hope for your sake you can find real cheese curds this episode and many others have been sponsored by square space because they've been an amazing partner in both bringing this show and my websites to life they've got a really intuitive easy-to-use platform that made it super easy for someone like me who has never done web design ever they have templates they do domains they have really good customer service it's basically a one-stop-shop for building a really slick website if you want to try it for yourself you can start your free trial today at squarespace.com and enter an offer code babish to get 10% off your first purchase you\n"