Returning home from my summer Montréal escape, I have realized something has been missing these last five weeks. Living in a prison cell of a dorm room with only a sink and mini-fridge – good for nothing but chilling the evenings wine might I add – I will never take for granted the amazing kitchen I’ve grown so fond of at home. I’ve returned from the city with a suitcase loaded up with all the cliché foodstuffs Montréal has to offer. Including a six and a half pound smoked meat brisket from Schwartz, a dozen and a half bagels from St Viateur, Le Sauce from St Hubert and but of course the infamous Quebec cheese curd, from which poutine gains superiority from Anglo ‘wanna-be’ Chips, Cheese and gravy. Apart from the treasures of which I will dispense in moderation over the next few months, the most important thing I’ve brought home with me is a renewed, supercharged love for food, especially of the French nature. Montréal’s ethno-diversity and vast abundance of global produce has me wanting more out of small town Nanaimo, now with the challenge of creating food from what is fresh and local on Vancouver Island the next eight months are bound to be full of new food adventures.

From Montréal, QC to Nanaimo, BC, I bring to you Maple Bacon Poutine.

• 4 large russet potatoes
• 1-cup fresh cheese curd, un-refrigerated fresh curd will squeak against your teeth, try Little Qualicum Cheeseworks for fresh VI curd!
• 1 Packaged St Hubert Poutine Sauce
• 6 thick slices of bacon

Prepare the maple bacon on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with maple syrup and bake at 350. After 15 minutes flip the bacon and drizzle again with more maple syrup. Keep an eye on the bacon and remove when perfectly cooked. Once cooled, slice bacon into match stick size pieces, reserving one slice for garnish.

While Bacon cooks, julienne cutting the potatoes and immediately placing them in an iced water bath, this will firm up the frites and remove excess starch. Leave them for approximately ten minutes then thoroughly drain and pat dry with paper towel. You can now deep fry if you would like, I prefer tossing the cold potatoes in olive oil, then baking off at 450 degrees until there nice and crispy.

Prepare Poutine Sauce via instruction on the package. I have no excuse not to make my own, other than this is excessively easy, and there is something authentically Québécois about using a packaged sauce for poutine. Try replacing ½ a cup of liquid in the recipe for white wine and add black pepper!

Assembly – Place frites in any appropriate vessel for consumption, toss cheese curd and match stick maple bacon on top and finally pour over le sauce.

One fork or two, Maple Bacon Poutine at ChezDarrenAndrew.com