Hachis Parmentier is a classic French dish made with slow-cooked beef and vegetables, shredded and mixed with a rich sauce, then topped with creamy mashed potato and cheese, and baked until golden. Basically, it's a fancy French cottage pie.
Category
Dinner
Servings
4-6
Prep time
30 minutes
Cook time
5 hours
Hachis Parmentier is a classic French dish made with slow-cooked beef and vegetables, shredded and mixed with a rich sauce, then topped with creamy mashed potato and cheese, and baked until golden. Basically, it's a fancy French cottage pie.
Ingredients
- 1kg beef oyster blade (flat iron steak), large dice
- ⅔ cup (100g) plain flour
- sea salt and pepper
- ¼ cup (60ml) olive oil
- 2 brown onions, diced
- 2 sticks celery, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 tbsp tomato paste (puree)
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 cups (500ml) red wine
- 2 cups (500ml) beef stock
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- 2 carrots, peeled, cut into large chunks
- 2 swedes, peeled, cut into large chunks
- 1kg Sebago potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks
- 150g butter, diced
- 150ml milk
- 100g Comte cheese, grated
Directions
Preheat the oven to 140°C fan forced (285°F).
- Toss the beef in half the flour in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat half the oil in a large heavy based casserole dish on medium high heat. Cook beef in batches, for 5-7 minutes, turning until browned on all sides. Set aside.
- Add onion, celery and garlic, cook for 5 minutes, until softened. Stir in tomato paste and vinegar, cook for 1 minute. Add wine, bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by half. Add stock, thyme, bay leaves and return beef to pan. Bring to a simmer, stirring, then cover and place in the oven, braise for 2 hours.
- Remove from the oven and stir in carrots and swedes, then continue braising for a further 2 hours.
- Remove from the oven and carefully remove beef chunks and vegetables from the saucepan, allow to cool. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve, pressing out remaining bits, then pour this back into the saucepan and back over the heat, bring to a simmer.
- In a small saucepan, melt 25g of the butter over medium heat. Stir in remaining flour and continue to cook until just starting to brown.
- Whisk butter mixture into simmering sauce and cook until starting to thicken.
- Dice the vegetables and shred the beef then stir back into the sauce. Remove from the heat and transfer mixture to a 2.5L (2.65 Qrt) capacity baking dish.
- Place potatoes in a large saucepan of cold salted water. Place over medium-high heat and cook for 35 minutes, until fork tender. Drain well in a colander, then place the colander back over the hot saucepan to dry out potatoes.
- Mash potatoes or push through a ricer into a large bowl. Stir in remaining butter and milk, season with salt and mix until very smooth. Transfer mashed potatoes to a piping bag with a plain nozzle.
- Pipe mash over the beef to cover the entire top. Sprinkle top with cheese.
- Increase oven temperature to 160°C fan forced (320°F).
- Bake for 20 minutes, then change the oven to grill on high heat. Grill for 5 minutes until golden brown.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
