In Celebration of Hockey

With the return of NHL hockey I decided some homemade poutine was in order.  Fortunately a couple things came together lately to make this fine endeavor successful.

The first is the discovery of Cozy Cow Dairy right here in northern Colorado that is a source for fresh cheese curds.  Freshness not only ensures the tasty flavor but provides the essential squeak that is a signature of this dish.  My previous supplier of curds were shipped from out of state and several purchases over time proved that they were not very fresh.  Cozy Cow seems to crank out fresh curds about every 10-14 days or so based on their twitter and facebook feeds.  Yes, follow them and they announce fresh curds, right out of the vat.  Fantastic.

So here is the second thing that helped make this tasty evening great.  One of my lovely family members bought me a deep fryer for Christmas.  So no frozen fries in this dish!! Once the curds were obtained I rounded up a couple russet potatoes and did my best to slice them into something like fries.  No fancy kitchen doo-dads here, just a sharp knife and a cutting board.  Here you can see them laid out to dry after a few minutes in ice water to remove some of the starch.  

The final ingredient is gravy.  I went with the jar here and I'm not afraid to say I think that it's probably as good as I could make.  You, on the other hand might be great at making gravy, me, not so much.  Not to mention I didn't plan ahead so that I would have something to make it from.  

 Here's the fries in their golden glory, right out of the fryer!!  

And...the finished dish!  The cheese and fries were great but the gravy was a bit strong for me.  I'll be looking around for something a bit less bold and lower in sodium.  But it was still a tasty dish and a great way to kick off the NHL season.