Tater Tot Poutine: Because WE CAN.

Poutine.  POOOOOOO-TEEEEEN.  It's just a really fun word.

And a delicious dish.  I mean, our friends up north have really nailed the comfort food arena.  Tim Horton's, beaver tails, Nanaimo bars, and POUTINE.  No wonder everyone is trying to move up there...I mean, that's the REAL reason, right folks?  Nothing to do with who El Presidente is.  Put on your best holier-than-thou act all you want---you REALLY just want to have unlimited access to Timbits and a double double from T-Ho's.  AND POUTINE.  Which, if you're not hip to it, is french fries, covered in fresh cheese curds, and then doused in rich brown gravy.  Go on, tell me you're not salivating.

Anywho...

I was perusing the cheese case at my local wine purveyor's the other day and found a package of jalapeno cheese curds from Edgewood Creamery in Purdy, Missouri.  They were marked down for quick sale, and I was happy to oblige.

What shall I do with these cheese curds? The only honest, respectable thing one can do with cheese curds-- serve them over potatoes with brown gravy.  It's every cheese curd's dream to go out like that.  
BUT...I didn't have fries at home. And I didn't want to MAKE fries.  But what I did have?

TATER TOTS.

So, like a good Midwestern non-Canadian gal, I baked up some crispy, delicious tots...

...and got to work.

INGREDIENTS: (Makes 2-3 servings)
Approximately 2 handfuls of tater tots (or more. I won't judge.)
4 ounces cheese curds
1 cup prepared brown gravy (I use Tony Chacheres)
1/4 cup thinly sliced onions (you could easily add or do mushrooms instead--I had some sliced onions I needed to use up and they went really well in this dish.)

DIRECTIONS:
Bake the tater tots according to package directions until brown and crisp on the outside (generally about 20 minutes).

While that's going, prepare your gravy.  Add the cool water, gravy mix, and onions to a small pan, and heat to boiling, while whisking.  Let boil for at least a minute, then decrease the temperature and simmer until it reaches your desired consistency (I like the gravy to be slightly thick, and to cling to the back of a spoon.)

Once the tots are done, transfer them into small bowls, then add the cheese curds, and top with onion gravy.  

Pairs well with Dark Star black kolsch from Bur Oak Brewing in CoMo.

Bacon Mushroom & Swiss Pizza

Last fall The Hubs & I took a trip down to Eureka Springs before the baby arrived.  We ordered a Mushroom & Swiss Cheeseburger Pizza at the Skybar (located at the top of the beautiful & reportedly haunted Crescent Hotel).  It was....okay.  Super cheesy, but lacking some depth of flavor that would have really made it taste like a Mushroom & Swiss Burger.  So, we decided we'd see if we could top it.
And this was our result.  Pretty darn tasty (though if I make it again, I'll use more cheese).

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup brown gravy (preferably made from Tony Chachere's Brown Gravy Mix)
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp smoked salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
1-2 Tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 medium onion, sliced into rings
2 cups smoked Swiss, shredded (note:  Swiss melts somewhat translucent, so feel free to add in some mozzarella to maintain that uber-cheesy pizza look)
2 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 pre-made crust (we did thin crust, you can opt for hand tossed if you prefer)

DIRECTIONS:
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef along with the Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic, steak seasoning, and yellow mustard (you can use ground mustard if you prefer--I was just out at the time).  These seasonings are intended to help your ground beef element taste as "burger-like" as possible.  If you have some other seasonings that you prefer to season your burgers with, by all means use those instead--it's all about tricking YOUR palate into thinking "Ooh, cheeseburger!"  The mustard plays a big role in that, so don't leave it out.  As they say on Food Network: "taste your food".  Season it until it tastes like a tasty burger that you would enjoy eating...then you're done.

When the ground beef is cooked through, use a slotted spoon or spatula to spoon it out & place in a bowl.  Then use the drippings that remain in the pan to saute the mushrooms & onions.  Cook until the onions are nice & caramelized.

Now it's time to assemble your pizza.  Preheat the oven according to your crust's instructions (for us it was 425F), and spread the gravy onto the crust.  Then add the ground beef, mushrooms, and onions.   Cover generously with cheese (all the way to the edges, peeps!!!) and cook according to the instructions that come with your crust (since the thin crusts are pre-cooked, that was like 7-9 minutes for us, but a hand tossed crust is going to take longer).

Once baked, let it cool for a bit (this time helps allow the cheese to "glue" the toppings in place before slicing), then slice and devour.

Enjoy!

Weekend Recipe: Part 2: Rice & Gravy from Pot Roast Leftovers

"Rice & gravy" is a staple dish in Louisiana homes, and refers to the basic "style" of the dish. Like so many Cajun dishes, this requires a modifier, as in, "what TYPE of rice & gravy?" which just mean what meat will be used. Sometimes it's a duck rice & gravy, there's beef rice & gravy, chicken rice & gravy...whatever's on-hand.

(Fun fact: I was not aware that there was more than one type of "spaghetti" until I moved to Louisiana. So when you tell a Cajun that you made spaghetti, they will ask "what kind?" This question refers to the type of meat you used. So a traditional meat sauce spaghetti would be "ground meat spaghetti", or there's shrimp spaghetti, chicken spaghetti, etc. But I'm getting off topic. ...and kinda craving spaghetti now.)

There are also traditionally two types of gravies down south--either brown or red. Red gravy is tomato-based, where brown gravy is usually made with the drippings from the meat.

Elsewhere in the world, this dish might be called smothered or stewed meat over rice. (But it probably tastes better in Louisiana...of course...I'm biased.)

So, since we have leftover pot roast, and delicious au jus from that roast, it's only fitting to make a nice quick rice & gravy!



How do we go about it? Couldn't be easier.

1. Take about 2 cups worth of au jus, roast & veggies (minus the potatoes--we don't need to double up on starches) & set aside.



2. Pour off the au jus into a measuring cup, then top it off with water until you have 1 cup of liquid.

3. Break out your trusty can of cajun gravy mix (if you don't have one, you need to. This stuff is fantastic on anything--mashed potatoes, steak (with some sauteed onions & mushrooms), and of course, rice & gravy--I mean...there's a recipe for it on the can.


4. In a saucepan, cook some rice--we like to use instant brown rice. Prepare as stated on the package.

5. In a large skillet, add the gravy mix and your 1 cup of water-au jus, and whisk thoroughly. Heat to boiling. The gravy will reduce down to a beautiful dark brown, like so, in a matter of about 4 minutes:


5. Add your pot roast leftovers to the gravy & heat over low.

6. Once your rice is nice & fluffy:


Serve the roast & gravy mix over rice, and DEVOUR.



Makes about 4 servings.

Nutrition facts:

Calories 347.5
Total Fat 12.3 g
Saturated Fat 4.6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 55.0 mg
Sodium 489.7 mg
Potassium 204.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 28.9 g
Dietary Fiber 2.6 g
Sugars 1.8 g
Protein 25.2 g
Vitamin A 91.3 %
Vitamin B-12 0.0 %
Vitamin B-6 5.3 %
Vitamin C 7.5 %
Vitamin D 0.0 %
Vitamin E 1.1 %
Calcium 3.8 %
Copper 7.4 %
Folate 3.6 %
Iron 14.6 %
Magnesium 9.3 %
Manganese 12.0 %
Niacin 8.9 %
Pantothenic Acid 1.3 %
Phosphorus 2.6 %
Riboflavin 2.0 %
Selenium 0.5 %
Thiamin 6.7 %
Zinc 5.2 %