Canada Day fell on a Sunday this year so we went all out. We’ve gathered those nearest and dearest for an epic celebration, incorporating all of our favourite things about this beautiful country.
We’ve got all the most Canadian snacks: ketchup and all-dressed chips, butter tarts, Nanaimo bars, and Timbits (sour cream, chocolate and old fashioned glaze or don’t bother).
We also banned any imported beers today – not that we needed to because the Canadian craft beer scene is bumping right now and that’s mostly what we’ve been drinking.
The main event is a slider competition. BBQing over Canada Day weekend is a must, and what better way to do instigate a potluck than incorporating a little battle royale. What is a slider you ask? According to Google, a slider is an “American” term for a small sandwich, typically around 2 inches across, made with a bun. The term primarily refers to small hamburgers, but can also cover any small sandwich made with a slider roll. So there you have it. What’s better than a hamburger on Canada Day? A bunch of little ones.
The name of the game is to split up in to teams of two (or more depending on how many people you’ve got at your jam) and make your own signature slider. Teams need to bring all of their own ingredients and fellow teams will judge their slider on taste, appearance, creativity and how much effort was put in. You can download our competition voting ballot here.
Our winning slider of the day was a Canadian themed Turkey burger that uses ketchup chips instead of breadcrumbs to bind. It’s also got romaine, caramelized onions, a maple mayo and is topped with the Quebecois Classic Poutine!!! We’ve printed the recipe for you below if you feel like you want to recreate it yourself. Trust us. You do.
For the burger patty:
- 2 pounds of ground turkey (two packs from the grocery store)
- Roughly half a bag of ketchup chips (two big handfuls)
- Chives
- 1 tbs of minced garlic
- 1 tbs of dijon mustard
- 1 tbs of chives (you can use chopped onion instead, we just had access to fresh chives growing in our garden)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp of ground pepper
For the poutine:
We made everything from scratch because there were points for effort, but you can definitely get frozen fries and gravy mix. We used Martha Stewarts recipe for gravy and it was amazing, it definitely made the burger.
- 3 white potatoes
- 3 cups of canola or sunflower oil (for frying)
- 1 tsp of salt
- Cheese curds
For the maple mayonnaise:
- 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
- 1/4 grainy dijon mustard
- 1 tbs of maple syrup
Everything else:
We topped our burger with cheddar cheese (yes there’s two different types of cheese on this burger, don’t judge) caramelized onions and romaine lettuce.
- half of one medium-sized white onion
- half a cup of butter
- Romaine lettuce, chopped (however much your heart desires)
- Cheddar cheese
- 12 slider buns (we got ours from Cobbs Bread Bakery)
- Start with the fries – you’re going to blanch them because it’s the best way to make sure they turn out nice and crispy. Chop your potatoes up in to thin strips and heat about three inches of canola or sunflower oil on your stove (or if you have a deep fryer then bust that out). Once the oil is ready for frying, drop in your potatoes a couple of small batches at a time. Once they’ve floated to the top, remove them and place them on a plate. Once you’ve done this to all your potatoes, put your plate of fries in the freezer to chill.
- Make your gravy. Remove stems from portobello, shiitake, and cremini mushrooms. Place stems and mushroom stock in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer for 30 minutes. Strain; set aside.Finely chop portobello cap, and set aside. Thinly slice shiitake and cremini. Place 3 tablespoons butter in a large saute pan over medium heat; add shallots, and cook until translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chopped and sliced mushrooms, and cook until mushrooms are soft and browned, and all liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat, and set aside. Place the remaining tablespoon butter and flour in a medium saucepan over medium heat; cook until browned and fully combined, 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly whisk in the enriched stock; bring to a boil, whisking until thickened. Add the reserved mushroom mixture and thyme, and stir to combine. We’re going to reheat our gravy just before we assemble our sliders.
- Next, make your burger patties. Put your ketchup chips in a food processor and blend them until they’re fine – the goal is to have them replicate bread crumbs. Grab a big bowl and mix together all of your patty ingredients and them form them in to patties. Refrigerate until ready to BBQ.
- Make your maple mayonnaise. Grab a small bowl and mix together the mayonnaise, maple syrup and grainy dijon, set aside in your refrigerator.
- Caramelize your onions. Slice the onion in to thin strips. Melt 1/2 cup of butter over medium heat. Once melted, add the onions and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. We added this right in to our gravy.
- Chop your lettuce, slice your cheddar.
- Cook your patties on the BBQ and then assemble. We did maple mayo on the bottom, followed by the patty, cheddar cheese, lettuce, then fries, cheese curds and gravy. Boom!
Our cocktail of the day was of course a Caesar. And we did it justice with a full Caesar bar set-up. Get the lowdown here.
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