Many years ago my friends introduced me to a restaurant called The Hat that serves enormous portions of chili cheese fries for only $4.00. A couple of times after visiting the eatery, I realized that they also serve gravy fries with melted cheddar cheese on top. The warm turkey gravy with crispy french fries and melted cheddar was even better than their chili cheese fries...and that's really saying something. After falling in love with this sinfully delicious dish, I discovered that Canadians have a similar dish called poutine. Poutine consists of french fries also covered with gravy but with the addition of cheese curds. Adapting this idea, I created galbi poutine - a fusion of Asian and Canadian!

Recipe

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Galbi Poutine

Total Time2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine: French, Korean

Keyword: beef

Servings: 4

Author: Christine Ma

Ingredients

Galbi marinade

• 1 lb thin cut short ribs
• ¼ cup onion peeled
• ¼ cup Asian pear peeled
• 2 scallions
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup rice wine
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

French fries

• 2 lb Idaho white potatoes
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Gravy

• 2 ½ cups turkey stock
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• ½ cup water
• ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• pinch celery salt

Remaining ingredients

• ½ lb fresh mozzarella crumbled
• chopped green onions for garnish

Instructions

• Combine ingredients for galbi marinade from onions - ½ teaspoon black pepper in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour marinade over short ribs, turning to coat. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Peel the potatoes and cut into ½-inch thick slices. Toss the potatoes with oil and salt and spread on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip the potatoes over and cook another 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and keep warm.
• Meanwhile, make the gravy. Bring turkey stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Dissolve the flour in water in a small bowl and gradually whisk into the stock. Season with the poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, and celery salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until thickened. Keep warm.
• Heat an oiled grill pan over medium-high heat. Cook the galbi until grill marks appear, about 4-5 minutes. Flip galbi over and cook on the other side for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and chop galbi into bite-size pieces, discarding the bone.
• Plate the french fries and top with mozzarella cheese. Pour the gravy on top. Cover the plate for 2 minutes or until the cheese starts to melt. Top with the galbi and finish with chopped scallions.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

As mentioned before, poutine is a dish that originated in Canada. Originally, poutine consisted of just fries and cheese curds but over time, people started to add gravy to keep the fries warm. Many restaurants now serve variations of poutine, adding bacon, pulled pork, foie gras, and even truffles. I decided to go Fusion and add Korean bbq short ribs to the dish.

You can purchase already marinated galbi at Korean markets but if you have the time, why not make your own batch? Galbi is traditionally made from flanken short ribs. The thin-cut lets the meat soak up the marinade quickly and cooks quickly. Just blend up the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the short ribs. Let the meat marinate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

I baked my potatoes in the oven for a somewhat healthier alternative; however, you can also fry the potatoes. If you are baking the fries, make sure to flip them over halfway through the cooking process to get both sides golden brown.

For the gravy, stick to lighter stocks such as chicken, turkey, or vegetarian. The gravy needs to be light enough to help maintain the crispiness of the fries. This explains why thicker beef or pork gravies are rarely used for poutine.

Now the cheese curds are what makes poutine so different than gravy fries; however, they are almost impossible in Los Angeles. What are cheese curds exactly? They are the solids parts of soured milk (sounds appetizing no?) with a mild taste. To compensate, I substituted it with fresh mozzarella cheese.

As expected, this galbi poutine was insanely delicious. The tender slightly sweet galbi with crispy french fries, gooey melted mozzarella, and savory gravy, what can be better? I don't think I have to convince you that you should try this dish immediately!

For more Korean food inspiration check out this kimchi fried rice arancini!