Recipes
Shepherd’s Pie – Hachis Parmentier (servings 3)
What you need:
2.2 pounds (1 kg) of potatoes
10.5 oz (300 g) of ground beef
Milk and butter for mashed potatoes
4 tablespoons of butter
1.4 oz (40 g) of grated Emmental cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper
Ready to eat Hachis Parmentier (Sheperd’s Pie)
How to make it:
- Boil the potatoes.
- When done, mash potatoes and add milk and butter. Salt.
- Brown the ground beef. Salt and pepper.
- Take a buttered dish and put beef at the bottom. Lay the mashed potatoes on top. Sprinkle a little bit of cheese if you want to. On top put about 4 tablespoons of butter here and there.
- In a preheated oven, cook at 430 F/220 C until lightly browned (about 20 minutes).
- Take out and let cooled at least 5 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
You can make it with veal and minced stew leftovers.
But where does the word Hachis-Parmentier come from?
The dish caries the name of a French botanist, Antoine Parmentier, who decided to spread the consumption of potatoes in France.
Even though the potato had come to Europe to Spain in 1565, it was not a vegetable which was widely eaten in France until 1769. The potato was forbidden to be eaten in France starting in 1630 (Besançon Act), as it supposedly brought leprosy to those who ate it. Parmentier planted some plants in the gardens of Louis XVI. He thought eating potatoes could help during famines. Peasants started eating them as well.
Hachis means in English, chopped, ground, minced.
