The bulbs of Northern Quebec Porcelain Garlic have white skin. Inside, there will be an average of 7 cloves, with pale purple skin, crunchy flesh and a strong taste. Above ground, the plant has thick dark green leaves. It belongs to the Porcelain sub-group of hardneck garlics. History Notes Northern Quebec Porcelain Garlic was first…
Québécois Food
Oreilles de Crisse
Oreilles de Crisse are a Québecois garnish of cooked pork rinds or cooked salt pork, similar to the Chicharróns made in Latin America. They are served as a side accompaniment to eggs at breakfast, to beans, to stews, or scattered on tops of dishes as a garnish. The rinds or salt pork can be can…
Pain d’habitant
Pain d’habitant is plain, white homemade bread made in Québec, Canada. Baked in bread pans, the dough is proofed as two rounds of dough in each pan, that rise to join together and form one loaf with an indent in the middle. Traditionally, Pain d’habitant is baked in brick or stone ovens outside the house,…
Pâté Chinois
Pâté Chinois © Paula Trites Pâté Chinois is a Québécois dish, similar to cottage pie, shepherd’s pie or the French of “hachis Parmentier.” The name means “Chinese pie.” It is a baked meat dish that consists of a layer of ground beef on the bottom of the dish, a middle layer of corn (whole or…
Pets de Nonnes
In France, Pets de Nonnes (“nuns’ farts”) these are small deep-fried fritters, or doughnuts if you wish. They are made throughout France. They are made from choux pastry that has been made with milk instead of water. Small pieces of the dough is fried, drained, and sprinkled with icing sugar. Some speculate that the term…
Pizzaghetti
Pizzaghetti is a Québec dish. It is pizza baked with its regular ingredients on it, then topped with plain, cooked spaghetti (usually covering the pizza entirely.) Then the spaghetti is topped with a sauce (usually a meat or plain tomato sauce), then served. It may be accompanied by garlic bread. The spaghetti is sometimes served…
Pot-en-Pot Québecois
Pot-en-Pot Madelaine Isles Style © Paula Trites Pot-en-Pot is a traditional seafood pot pie made in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Québec. To make it, soften shallots, onions, celery, carrots and small cubes of potato in a cooking pot for about 15 minutes, then add fishstock or water and seafood (scallops, lobster, shrimp, etc.), and cook a bit more….
Poutine au Pain
Poutine au Pain means “bread pudding” in Québecois and Acadian French. Like Bread Pudding in English, there is no one set recipe, but rather many. Language Notes “Poutine au Pain” is probably an anglicisme (“English-influenced expression”) that passed into Québecois in the early 1900s. Mentioned in Roger Lemelin’s 1948 novel Les Plouffe (The Plouffe Family)…
Poutine en Sac
Poutine en sac is a steamed pudding cooked in a cloth bag. It is sometimes referred to as “poutine à la vapeur” (steamed pudding), because of the cooking process. In more colloquial Acadian or Québécois French, it’s sometimes called “poutine steamée.” The pudding will be a mixture of flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, milk, fat…
Poutine Glissante
Poutine glissante is basically a dumpling served as a dessert with a sweet syrup such as molasses or maple syrup.
Poutine Québécoise
Poutine as served in Québec is a fast food, consisting of French fries, covered with cheese curds, then thick, dark gravy.
Québec Belle Apple
An older variety of apple, pretty much reserved for home gardeners, certainly absent from grocery stores in Québec today. Sprung from Northern Spy, and similar to Northern Spy in flavour and usage. A hardy tree that is good down to -50 F (-45 C.) The apples store well.
Québec National Day
The 24th of June, St-Jean-Baptiste day, is the national day of Québec, and an official holiday, with everyone getting the day off work.
Québecois Food
Québec is bordered on the top by the Arctic, on the west by the Canadian province of Ontario, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south by the American states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. It is a very cold climate. In early May, there are often still huge…
Salt Pork Rinds
Salt Pork Rinds are thin slices of salted pork, with the rind on it, fried until they become crispy. Note these are somewhat different from the “Pork Rinds” sold as snack food in bags in North America. Those are very light, and airy. These Pork Rinds, Salt Pork Rinds, are hard on the outside where…
Tarte à la mélasse
Tarte à la mélasse is a version of molasses pie made in Québec and in Acadian areas of Canada and New England such as Maine. It is made from boiling water, corn starch, and an equal amount of brown sugar and molasses. You mix the brown sugar, molasses and water, bring to a boil on…
Tarte au Sucre
Québécois-style Tarte au Sucre © Paula Trites Tarte au Sucre is a French term meaning “sugar pie.” The star ingredient for the filling of the pie is sugar — either cane or beet sugar. It is now considered “traditional” in the Waterloo and Charleroi areas of Belgium, which historically were sugar beet growing areas. In…
Thibodeau du Comté Beauce Beans
Thibodeau du Comté Beauce Beans are off-white with dark red mottling. They grow in straight green pods with reddish-purple stripes. Thibodeau du Comté Beauce Beans grow on a bush type bean plant that blossoms with pink flowers; 40 days from seed for use as a green bean; 60 days for use as a bean for…
Tourtière (Québécois)
Tourtière as made in Quebec is a meat pie. It consists of a bottom layer of pie pastry, then a layer of meat filling, then a top covering layer of pie pastry. The pie is then baked in an oven. Spices used in the meat filling can include cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice, accompanied by…
Whippet Cookies
Whippet Cookies © Denzil Green Whippets are commercially made cookies that popular in Quebec. Each cookie consists of a crunchy round biscuit bottom, topped with a splodge of marshmallow, then coated in pure chocolate. The original is just that: no added jam layer, or anything. Other varieties, however, are now available: Black Forest, Strawberry, Milk…
Yellow Pea Soup
Perhaps the most famous pea soup in the world, Swedish “Ärtsoppa”, is made from Yellow Peas. Though Artsoppa has been made for hundreds and hundreds of years, probably back to the time of the Vikings, it gained recognition when introduced in Ikea cafeterias throughout the world. Yellow Pea soup is traditionally made in Sweden on…
Yule Log
Yule Log, also known by its French name of Bûche de Noël, is a rolled-up, iced cake made and served at Christmas time. The cake can be chocolate or a plain sponge or a Genoise, cooked in a long flat pan. You spread a filling out on top the cake, then roll it up carefully,…