Introduction: Upcycle Your Rest of Meals: the Real Recipe of the French Hachis Parmentier
I will present you today one of my favourite recipes of the french cuisine. You will hardly find it in the restaurants but in most families.
The story of this recipe is also interesting. Mr Antoine Parmentier was a french pharmacist in the late 18th century. After being prisoner of war, he introduces potatoes in France. Thus he had a great impact on famine in France.
The legend tells that to promote potatoes in France he used tricks such as having soldiers guarding the potatoes field but only during the day, thus Parisians came during the night to stole potatoes thinking that it was reserved for kings and Gentry. He was also organizing diner with famous guests such as Benjamin Franklin. In one of those diners, he introduces the today recipe which became a standard in the french cuisine.
Aside being a great recipe for cooking potatoes, the Hachis Parmentier is also a very good way to cook rest of meats from other meals.
And first, warm your oven, 220°C or Th 7/8 (check this last one on your oven tech sheet)
Wash your hands, let's go!
What you will need:
Traditionally Hachis is cooked with rest of meals but you can cook it with fresh meat and whatever might be your option, prepare fresh meat as an add-on in case you run short of meat.
- Rest of meats
- Potatoes
- Shallots
- Parsley
- Cream
- Extra fresh meat if required
- Nutmeg
So let's cook this wonderful meal!
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Step 1: Preparing the Mashed Potatoes
Choose the best potatoes for mashed potatoes according to your location and seasonal availability.
Peel the potatoes and boil them. They must be well cooked in order to have a great meal.
Once cooked, put them into your blender together with half of the cream, a fillet of olive oil, salt and pepper. Mash them.
If your mashed potatoes seems not creamy enough, pour some milk into your blender. It is really important that your mashed potatoes are creamy enough. It will allow all aromas from meat and potatoes to migrate during the final baking.
Step 2: The Meat
In my case, I used the rest of a veal meal I made earlier. If you use "second-hand" meat, take care that your meat can still be eaten and is not too old ;-)
Mix your meat with parsley, shallot, fillet of olive oil, the second half of the cream, salt and pepper into your blender. You can also add a little bit of milk if needed in order to achieve a creamy consistency.
Step 3: Setting Up the Hachis Parmentier
Now you have two creamy preparations:
- wonderful mashed potatoes, creamy and tasty,
- the most tasty meat stuffing.
Let's build the Hachis.
Have you ever made Lasagna? That's exactly the same principle. We will alternate layers of potatoes and meat in a large dish.
Bake it for the necessary time depending of your meat (mainly):
- if you used already cooked meat, 30 min are enough
- if you used fresh meat, depending of your meat (check it before hand), more time might be required.
Step 4: Serve Hot and Enjoy!
Once baked, ensure a good llok with the grilled cheese and servie it.
I served it with a lamb's lettuce salad. The fresh taste of the lettuce is a good combination with the hachis.
Et voilà!
I hope you enjoyed this recipe and the meal.