
A few weeks ago, I was reminded of a traditional French recipe of mashed potatoes and stewed minced meat casserole that my grand-father used to make for us, the Hachis parmentier. Very similar to the Shepherd’s pie, it’s a winter comfort food classic that is also enjoyable during the rest of the year with a side salad.
The most common way to prepare the hachis parmentier is with minced beef, but the recipe also works well with lamb meat or any stew or sauce left-over, such as a Bolognese sauce. There is a “gourmet” hachis parmentier very popular at the moment in the South West of France: the duck confit parmentier made with Duck confit instead of beef minced meat.
You can mix any vegetable and spice according to your taste for the “hachis”: tomato, pepper, carrot, celery, leek etc. I usually like to add a touch of hot spice to the meat because it gives it a little kick, but it’s absolutely not mandatory.
Just go for it following your intuition, it’s very hard to screw up!!!
Hachis parmentier or French Shepherd’s pie
Ingredients
- 33 pounds (1,5 kg) of potatoes
- 1 US cup (20 cl) of milk
- 1/5 stick (20 grams) of salted butter
- Fresh ground nutmeg at ease
- Seasoning: salt, pepper, ground coriander seeds…
- Olive oil for the pan
- 1 onion
- 3 garlic gloves
- 2 tomatoes
- 20 to 28 oz (600g to 800g) of beef minced meat
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- Provençal herbs at ease
- 1 tbsp soft or hot paprika if you like it
- Seasoning: salt, pepper, ground coriander seeds…
- 1/2 US cup (10 cl) red wine
- !3,5 oz (100 gr) tasty hard cheese (comté, cheddar…)
Instructions
-
- Peel the potatoes and boil them in hot salty water for about 20 minutes, until they are well cooked.
- Slowly warm up the milk in a small pot in the meantime.
- Drain the water of the potatoes, put them back in the same pot, incorporate the hot milk, butter and seasoning – and mash all those ingredients together until the purée is ready. Set aside.
-
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180°C).
- Chop the onion and garlic gloves. In a pan, warm up a little bit of olive oil and fry them over medium heat until the onion is soft. In the meantime, p*eel and cut the tomatoes* in small pieces.
- Incorporate the tomatoes to the pan, along with the minced meat, the flour, the Provençal herbs, the paprika and the seasoning.
- Increase the heat to high and cook until the meat is brown.
- Pour the red wine in the pan and continue cooking until evaporated, then turn off the heat.
- Spread half of the purée evenly in the bottom of the backing dish, cover with the stewed meat and top with a final layer of purée.
- Sprinkle the grated cheese over the casserole and bake for 30 minutes. You can broil 5 extra minutes in order to brown the dish evenly at the end of the cooking.
- Once the cooking time is over, let it rest a few minutes and serve it straight, along with a little salad if you like.
Hachis parmentier or French Shepherd’s pie
Ingredients
Purée
- 33 pounds (1,5 kg) of potatoes
- 1 US cup (20 cl) of milk
- 1/5 stick (20 grams) of salted butter
- Fresh ground nutmeg at ease
- Seasoning: salt, pepper, ground coriander seeds...
Minced meat
- Olive oil for the pan
- 1 onion
- 3 garlic gloves
- 2 tomatoes
- 20 to 28 oz (600g to 800g) of beef minced meat
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- Provençal herbs at ease
- 1 tbsp soft or hot paprika if you like it
- Seasoning: salt, pepper, ground coriander seeds...
- 1/2 US cup (10 cl) red wine
- !3,5 oz (100 gr) tasty hard cheese (comté, cheddar...)
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes and boil them in hot salty water for about 20 minutes, until they are well cooked.
- Slowly warm up the milk in a small pot in the meantime.
- Drain the water of the potatoes, put them back in the same pot, incorporate the hot milk, butter and seasoning - and mash all those ingredients together until the purée is ready. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180°C).
- Chop the onion and garlic gloves. In a pan, warm up a little bit of olive oil and fry them over medium heat until the onion is soft. In the meantime, p*eel and cut the tomatoes* in small pieces.
- Incorporate the tomatoes to the pan, along with the minced meat, the flour, the Provençal herbs, the paprika and the seasoning.
- Increase the heat to high and cook until the meat is brown.
- Pour the red wine in the pan and continue cooking until evaporated, then turn off the heat.
- Spread half of the purée evenly in the bottom of the backing dish, cover with the stewed meat and top with a final layer of purée.
- Sprinkle the grated cheese over the casserole and bake for 30 minutes. You can broil 5 extra minutes in order to brown the dish evenly at the end of the cooking.
- Once the cooking time is over, let it rest a few minutes and serve it straight, along with a little salad if you like.