Hachis Parmentier

With this cold snap this last week in Philadelphia (the low was 12F on Monday into Tuesday), I wanted some good old fashioned stick-to-your-ribs comfort food. So I started searching the web for more information about shepherd’s pie.

Hachis Parmentier

Primarily known early on as cottage pie, this dish was the vehicle for using leftover meat, encasing the meat in mashed potatoes. Now shepherd’s pie is a combination of beef or lamb and sturdy vegetables topped with a mashed potato crust.



Serving suggestion

I didn’t know there were so many different relatives to the cottage pie, like the Cumberland pie, the vegetarian and vegan friendly Shepherdess pie and the French Canadian pâté chinois. Even the French dabble in this dish with the hachis Parmentier, described as a dish made with mashed potato, combined with browned meat and sauce lyonnaise.  Well, I had overdosed on Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on New Year’s day and I had rewatched the "Lyon" episode, so this particular version stuck out for me. I found a blog entry about it in French and based my recipe on what I read here: http://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.com/recette/304981-hachis-parmentier.
 So I played around with being a little more locavore with the dish and wanted to include all available winter root vegetables.

While searching for more information about sauce lyonnaise, I found a site quoting Paul Bocuse. Again fresh off that Parts Unknown marathon, I quickly recalled who he is.

According to renowned Lyonnaise chef Paul Bocuse, "In Lyon we put onion in almost everything."  French onion soup originated in Lyon, as does this simple and versatile onion-scented sauce.  It's superb with mashed potatoes or roasted vegetables, grilled or roasted beef, pork, lamb, game, or poultry.

More Than Gourmet

So I thought that I should work on having this sauce in addition to the hachis Parmentier. Comme on dit, « Quand on est à Rome…»

Note that a traditional sauce lyonnaise uses a brown sauce –Auguste Escoffier's mother sauce, sauce Espagnole – and strains the onion before serving.  Go ahead and do that if you’d like, but why waste the food.

Hachis Parmentier of Winter Root Vegetables with Sauce Lyonnaise, serves 8

Ingredients

This is what 2¼ lbs  of root vegetables looks like 

For the root vegetable mash:

• 2¼ lbs of winter root vegetables: golden beets, rutabagas, turnips, potatoes for example
• water
• ½ t salt
• 2 T heavy cream
• 3 T butter
• ¾ cp milk
• ½ t salt
• ½ t nutmeg

For the meat filling:

• 1 T butter
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 small carrot, minced
• 2/3 of 1 large onion, minced (reserve 1/3 for the sauce, below)
• 1 lb ground beef
• ½ t black pepper
• ½ t salt
• ½ cup of grated Swiss cheese

For the sauce Lyonnaise:

• 2 T butter
• ½ cp dry white wine
• ¼ cp white wine vinegar
• ¾ cp condensed beef broth
• salt & ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 T chopped fresh parsley (optional since it’s not truly seasonal)

Directions

1. 
   

   

   Sautéing the vegetable for the beef 

   Peel and chop the root vegetables into cubes for easier cooking;
2. Place the peeled and cut vegetables into a large saucepan; add cold water to the pan until the vegetables are covered by at least an inch and then add salt to the water.
3. Turn the heat on to high and bring the water to a boil; reduce the heat to low to maintain a simmer, cover and cook for 15 - 20 minutes, or until you can easily poke through the vegetables with a fork.
4. When the root vegetables are done, drain the water and place them into a large bowl.
5. Pour the cream and with 3 tablespoons of butter over the vegetables and mash with a potato masher; use a wooden spoon to beat further.
6. Add milk and mix until the mashed potatoes are as smooth as you like; finish with nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
7. Heat a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet; sauté the shallot, garlic, carrot and onion until the onion turns translucent, about 5-10 minutes.
8. Add the ground beef and cook until brown, breaking up meat with back of spoon, about 5 -10 minutes; then add pepper and salt; remove from the pan and set aside.
9. In a greased 11 x 7 pan, add enough mashed vegetable to make a bottom “crust”, about half of the mixture.
10. Layer the ground beef mixture on top of the mashed vegetables; cover the beef with the remaining mashed vegetable mixture.
11. Sprinkle the top with cheese; bake for 45 minutes in a 350 degree preheated over on the top shelf.
12. For the sauce, in the same skillet as used for the beef, melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in the remaining onion and sauté until onion turns golden, 10-12 minutes. 
13. Add the wine and the vinegar, bring to a boil and cook until the liquid is reduced by ¾ to about 3 tablespoons.
14. Stir in condensed beef broth and simmer gently for 5 minutes or so until the sauce thickens.
15. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper and then add the parsley.
16. When the dish has been baked the 45 minutes; raise the oven temperature to broil and broil until the very top is browned, about 3 minutes.
17. Serve individual pieces over the “sauce Lyonnaise”.

Sautéing the onion for the sause

The reality is that it took me 2 hours from preparation to eating this dish.  The mincing took the most time and onions and shallots make me cry.

The take away is, this is a dish that shows love, in addition to being comfort food.  This dish lends itself to being made for a birthday or a special Sunday dinner, when comfort food is requested. I think that I would make it again, and even for a Tuesday! But that's before I know what I'm getting into.  

However if you want the taste without the meticulous effort, make yourself some shepherds pie. Then follow the recipe for the sauce lyonaisse and serve that with the shepherds pie. The sauce tastes like concentrated French onion soup and go so well with meat, chicken and potatoes!



About to go into the oven, before the cheese is added