Poutine and brisket Sauce
========================= 2023-03-05


3 servings

Comment: For a brisket, all you need is beef stock. For a poutine, we use half beef stock, and half chicken stock. The quality and tastes of of commercial stocks vary greatly between Europe and the North American continent. It will therefore be necessary to use circumspection (it will be necessary to taste and to know what one tastes). In North America, there are chicken and beef broths in cartons or cans which normally should be reduced a lot. Try to find the best (it's difficult). In Europe, we find rather concentrated products, but not always good enough and often too salty. It is important to read the list of ingredients.

For balsamic vinegar, we need to balance the acidity and sugar. Balsamic vinegar sounds great for this, but if not available, a little good red wine vinegar and a small pinch of sugar can do the trick.

To thicken the sauce, a roux is used here (as much flour as butter). To help the brown color of the sauce (and the taste), we make a brown roux (hazelnut), it takes a little more time and work, but it's worth it. Normally for this quantity of sauce (~800 ml), we would be satisfied with 32 g of flour and butter for the roux, but here we want a thick sauce, we increase the quantities to 50 g of each. The rule is to use 40 g per liter of sauce to bind a normal sauce, and 70 g of each to obtain the consistency of a béchamel (here, we want something in between).

Another option is to first toast the flour before making the roux (7 to 10 mn in a dry pan, stirring constantly).

The amount of sauce produced here may seem significant, but for a poutine you have to be generous with the sauce, which must coat the cheese and the fries well.


Ingredients:
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50 g flour, 50 g butter for the roux

1 bacon rind (opt) _
1 nice carrot, cut into rings
1 celery stalk, sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves
3 crushed garlic cloves
2 sprigs of thyme or a good pinch of dried thyme
2 bay leaves
some parsley tails (opt)
1 tablespoon of good red wine vinegar, or balsamic vinegar
50 cl beef stock and 50 cl chicken stock or for the brisket 100 cl beef stock
3 tablespoons tomato puree and 3 small pinches of sugar
12 peppercorns slightly cracked
1+ pinch of cayenne pepper
salt
EVOO


Preparation:
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In a saucepan, heat a little EVOO.
Sweat the onions, then the rind of bacon.
Add the carrots and celery, sauté for a few more minutes (without burning).

Add the stocks and all other ingredients (spices and tomato puree).
Add the crushed garlic cloves.
Boil briefly, then simmer half-covered for 60 to 90 minutes and reduce by ~1/3 (cover after that). Add salt if necessary (depending on whether the stocks are salty or not - normally not). Make sure you get ~800 ml of liquid after filtering.

Filter through a large colander, pushing the juice (and a little solid) through the colander. Discard the rest. Reserve aside (let cool).

Make a brown roux with the butter and flour:
- melt the butter over low heat without coloring
- off the heat, add all the flour and mix with a whisk
- return to medium heat and cook slowly, stirring constantly (it takes a moment ~10 min)
 until a light hazelnut color, without letting it burn.
- let cool a little.

Remove from the heat, pour the stock all at once over the roux. Mix well, return to the heat and bring to a boil while constantly stirring.

Adjust the salt if necessary (taking into account that cheese and fries may be salty, pour very hot over the cheese and fries.