Whodunnit Dinners podcast #17 Season 2 Ep 7: Johana Gustawsson: Nightmare noir, cross-century crimes and peculiar poutine
Hello from Whodunnit Dinners podcasters Helen and Katie: murder mystery dinner party game writers who like to chat about whodunnits and the food inspired by their stories. In our latest podcast - the seventh of the second season - Helen introduces Katie to an unusual murder mystery set in Canada called ‘The Bleeding’ and Katie reflects on the bizarre mystery that is the popularity of a Canadian dish called poutine.
The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson
The Bleeding was published in 2022 in France, where it became a number one bestseller. It was then released in English the following year, to be shortlisted for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger. It is a gripping story of murder and black magic set mainly in French-speaking Canada. ‘Queen of French Noir’, Johana Gustawsson’s gothic thriller swings from 1899 Belle Époque France to modern Quebec. In the central modern storyline, a former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband to death. Detective Maxine Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation. The story moves between the present-day investigation and two strangely connected stories of the apparent death of two girls in a fire in Paris and a dark relationship between an outcast teenager and an elderly lady in an asylum in years gone by.
If your interest has been piqued, we would encourage you to listen to the podcast to find out more about this whodunnit, which is slightly off the beaten track.
And now on to the podcast’s related dish, researched and shared by Katie…
History of Poutine
Poutine is chips and gravy with fresh cheese curds. It originated in Quebec in the late 1950s and has become a symbol of Quebecois culture.
There are various stories about the origins of the name. One Katie liked is that a client at a restaurant called Le Lutin Qui Rit (The Laughing Elf) asked the owner to make him this dish, to which the owner said, ‘ Ca va faire une maudite poutine!’ or ‘That’s going to make a damn mess!’ to which she would heartily agree!
However, another restaurant owner Jean-Paul Roy of Le Roy Jucep claimed to be the first to add gravy to fries and cheese and he officially registered his restaurant as the inventor of the dish in 1998.
Katie’s only question would be, why?
Recipe for poutine
If you must make this, here is the recipe.
Ingredients and method
Fries – from any supermarket. Follow the instructions on the packet for how long to cook and at what temperature in the oven.
Gravy – any gravy of your choice. Again, follow the instructions and prepare to your preferred consistency.
Once the chips are cooked, pour the gravy over them and add cheese curds on top.
You can get cheese curds online from sites like https://batchfarmcheesemakers.co.uk and https://longleyfarm.com up in Yorkshire.
Do not use cottage cheese! This is considered a Poutine Crime!
Good luck!
Listen to the podcast
In spite of our lack of enthusiasm for this Canadian culinary masterpiece, you may be interested to hear more about it. But if not, we still suggest you tune into our podcast anyway, to get an insight into the plot and themes of The Killing, and to help you decide if it's to your own reading taste. To hear the full Whodunnit Dinners podcast, go here.