Hachis Parmentier is a meat and potatoes meal, popular in France, reminiscent of shepherd's pie but much better. It's made with layers of leftover beef and mashed potatoes, it's covered with cheese, and then it's baked, coming out of the oven looking rather decadent, and tasting delicious. I made some at the beginning of this month, and we enjoyed having it for dinner. At the time I didn't have any leftover beef to work with, but I had a small quantity of frozen chuck meat which I defrosted, cooked low and slow, then turned into hachis Parmentier.
A few words about the name for this dish: hachis means chopped up, and it derives from the word hatchet. I find the etymological history of the word fascinating. The online dictionary, one of my favourite sites on the Internet has this to say: "Middle English hachet, from Old French hachete, diminutive of hache, ax, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German happa, sickle." Yes, I do get excited over words and their history, but look: our word axe derives from the French hache, and it came to exist by dropping the letter "h," which the French almost always drop when speaking, and which some English speakers also drop, although they shouldn't. So axe up some cooked meat, season it, and you'll be one step closer to creating hachis Parmentier.
As for "Parmentier," the word is applied to dishes cooked with or accompanied by potatoes. The name "Parmentier" refers to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, an 18th-century French pharmacist who promoted the potato as a food source, and who was responsible for having the French government declare potatoes an edible crop. He used all sorts of methods to do this, including serving potatoes to such luminaries as the visiting Benjamin Franklin. My favourite of Parmentier's stunts was this: he surrounded his potato fields with armed guards to suggest that valuable goods were being guarded there. His guards were instructed to accept bribes from the passing crowds and to withdraw during the night so that the crowds could gain access to the fields and steal the "valuable" potatoes. That's what I call a promoter; the man was way ahead of his time! I love potatoes, and so I thank Monsieur Parmentier for his efforts, yes, I thank him wholeheartedly.
Now let me put the dictionary aside so I can describe how I cooked the hachis Parmentier.
Method:
Beef: Use leftover cooked beef if you have it. If not, use about a pound of chuck beef cut into small pieces. You will need to boil the beef so that you can have the bouillon needed for the recipe.
- 1 to 1 ½ pounds of chuck beef cut into pieces (you'll be cutting it up even further once it's cooked).
- About 4 cups of water
- 1 onion, quartered
- 2 carrots peeled and chopped in half
- 3 celery stalks, cut in half, leaves included
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf, a teaspoon of peppercorns, some salt, a few sprigs of thyme, and some spigs of parsley.
- Place all the ingredients into a soup pot. Bring to a boil and skim off the foam that comes to the surface. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours until the meat is soft.
- Strain the broth and reserve it.
- Shred the meat into small pieces and reserve it.
- 3 or 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 carrot, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tomato peeled seeded and chopped3 mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 leek, thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon of thyme leaves
- Add the oil to the pan and heat. Sauté the onions, tomato, carrot, mushrooms, and leeks until they are soft. Mix in the reserved meat then sprinkle the flour over and combine it well.
- Add enough of the reserved bouillon to moisten the filling. You want to have a filling that is nice and juicy, but not one that is swimming in broth.
- Add the thyme and parsley
- Place the filling in a greased oven-safe casserole.
- Use 2 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes to make mashed potatoes just the way you like them. I cook them in boiling water, peel them, chop them, then mash them. While mashing, I add 1/2 cup milk, 3 tablespoons butter, and a seasoning of salt and pepper.
- Layer the mashed potatoes over the filling.
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated Gruyère and one tablespoon grated Pecorino Romano cheese over the potatoes. Using a fork or a spoon, create an interesting pattern on the surface of the potatoes.
- Bake the dish in a preheated 400° F oven for about 20 minutes. It's done when you are able to see the filling bubbling and when the potato topping is a nice, light golden brown. If you like, decorate the top with chopped chives.
