The Indian Poutine Experiment

Many months ago, B and I first thought of making Indian pizza, which has since become a regular meal for us. It's simple, really - it consists of one of those heat-and-serve Indian dinners, spread generously on naan bread, and then topped with cheese. It's delicious. It also started me thinking about what other interesting concoctions could be given an Indian twist. I had thought poutine would be interesting, but I didn't really give it a whole lot more thought until recently.

Last week, we stopped in at Basmati, a little fast-food style Indian place on the corner of Somerset and Bank. We were walking by and noticed that, sure enough, they had already thought of Indian poutine. We decided to give it a try, and it was admittedly pretty tasty, but I couldn't help thinking that it wasn't as tasty as it could have been. The fries were just plain fries, the sauce was a bit runny, and it was fairly plain. This got me to thinking about how to make an absolutely incredible Indian poutine, and last night, I think we figured it out. Here's how it's done.

Ingredients
4 tbsp Sunflower Oil
4 tsp Ground Cumin
2 tsp Turmeric
2 tsp Chili Powder
6 Potatoes, uncooked and cut into strips
1 tbsp Ghee (or more Sunflower Oil)
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Medium-sized Onion, sliced
1 Can of Patak's Rogan Josh Curry Sauce
1 Large Bag of Cheese Curds
Frozen Peas (optional, but delicious)

1) Combine the Sunflower Oil and the other spices in a bowl. Coat the potato strips with the spicy oil, and arrange them on a baking sheet. Bake in the centre of the oven at 400°F for 30 minutes (or until brown), turning them over once.

2) While the potatoes are in the oven, heat the Ghee in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add the cumin seeds and fry for 30 seconds (this doesn't take long!). Add the sliced onion and fry for 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent.

3) Add the Rogan Josh sauce and the frozen peas to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat a little, so that the sauce is still bubbling slightly. Leave it for about 20 minutes, or until the peas are cooked. Give it a final blast at full heat for the last couple of minutes so that it's hot enough to melt the cheese.

4) When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and divide them into bowls. Top with the cheese curds, and pour the gravy over top. Serve and enjoy!

I think this was seriously the most decadent poutine I've ever had. I decided on the Rogan Josh sauce since it's about the same colour as regular poutine gravy, so it would have the same appearance, but I'm sure you could use pretty much any of the Patak's sauces for this. They're all good. Anyway, if you like Indian food and poutine, give this one a go. Trust me, you won't regret it!