- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
Today, I am gonna show you how to make
one of my favorite cold weather comfort foods
called hachis parmentier.
Now, this dish is made with seasoned ground beef
that's then topped with mashed potatoes.
And of course, sprinkled with Gruyere cheese,
popped under the broiler until it gets nice
and gooey and crispy.
And the combination of all those flavors is
just what you want on a cold winter's night.
Now, if you're not a meat-eater, not to worry.
You can enjoy a version of this dish
with my vegan recipe for hachis parmentier.
And I'm gonna show you how to make that too.
Okay, so the first thing you wanna do is prep your potatoes.
So I have four good-sized russet potatoes here,
roughly about four pounds, and not to worry,
you can get all the measurements in the description
or you can also print the recipe
on my website at www.entertainingwithbeth.com.
Now, the reason why you wanna use a russet is
the russets are the ones that really make
nice and fluffy mashed potatoes.
And that's the kind we want.
Now that all of our potatoes are peeled,
the next thing you wanna do is cut them in half, like so.
And then, I also like to cut them in quarters.
I find this is the quickest way
to cook a potato when they're boiling.
So I have a large pot of water.
I'm gonna add the potatoes to the water.
Okay, so in addition to picking the russet potato,
the other thing that will get you a fluffy potato
is to put them in cold water.
That way they come up to temperature
when the water comes up to temperature,
and that, I have learned, creates a fluffier mashed potato.
There we go, we're gonna let that go.
Meanwhile, we can create the meat filling.
Okay, so you can really use
any heat-safe casserole for this recipe.
Over the years,
I have found that this type of pan works the best for me,
only because I can cook the meat and the onions in here,
I can put the potatoes on top, I can bake it.
And then when I wanna pop it in the fridge
because of the leftovers,
I just put the top back on, put it in the fridge.
The first thing you wanna do is add
a tablespoon of olive oil into your skillet here.
Then I have a cup and a half of diced white onion.
There you go.
Then we can season our onions
with a little bit of salt and pepper just to taste.
We're also gonna season the beef,
but I find that if you just flavor every step of the recipe,
you will end up with a much more flavorful dish.
Then once your onions start to become nice and translucent
and fragrant, then we're gonna add the beef.
Cook the beef until it's completely cooked through.
You can just brown it on all sides
and mix it up there with the onions.
Okay, now we are gonna season our meat.
So we're gonna do at least a 1/2 teaspoon of salt,
some freshly cracked pepper,
(pepper grinding)
1 1/2 teaspoons of herbs de Provence.
If you don't have this,
you could just use a blend of basil,
a little bit of dried oregano, some marjoram and parsley.
And then, I also like to add a teaspoon
of Worcestershire sauce, which I know is not very French.
In fact, when I buy it in France,
I always laugh because it's labeled English sauce.
But I think that Worcestershire sauce
works a lot like a salt.
And in the case of any kind of meat,
it just kinda gives it a hardier flavor, so I throw it in.
I think it's also really good to add
a tablespoon of freshly minced thyme.
I always like to use a combination of dried and fresh herbs.
I just find that it just makes it more flavorful.
Okay, and then the next thing we wanna do is
add a 1/4 cup of a dry white wine.
You could use Chardonnay.
You could use a Sauvignon Blanc.
If you don't drink, I would just leave it out.
Or you could add a 1/4 cup of chicken broth
if you wanted to add a little bit more flavor.
And then we wanna add two cloves of garlic.
If you're not that big of a garlic person,
you could also just add one.
I'm a really big garlic person.
So (chuckling) I just load it in there.
Okay, our meat filling is ready to go.
So we can just set this aside
while we prep our mashed potatoes.
If you ask my mother-in-law,
she would not call them mashed potatoes,
she would call them potato puree.
And here's the difference.
My American side would go with this for the mashed potatoes,
but the French side goes with this, the ricer.
And this is the thing that totally makes
the most delicious mashed potato or potato puree.
We first wanna begin with our butter.
So I'm gonna put five tablespoons of butter
in the bottom of my bowl.
Then when we start to rice the potatoes,
the heat from the potatoes will melt the butter
and we won't need to bring out our electric mixer.
Then I think it helps to use a slotted spoon
to get your potatoes out.
And this also saves you the step
of having to pour it through a colander.
I usually put
two potatoes in at a time.
You press down on the ricer, and see?
It just rices out little pieces of potato
which makes it so smooth and creamy.
Can you see me through the fog?
And then if you need to, you can go in with a knife.
And I just scrape it back into the little basket
because then as you rice more potatoes,
it'll just get worked through.
All right, here we go.
(upbeat music)
So now, all you need to do is take a whisk and whip this up.
So I just give it a turn just to make sure
that the butter has melted at the bottom,
which it has, which is great.
And then we're going to add a 1/2 cup of milk, in it goes.
Now, in the vegan version of this recipe,
I'm gonna show you how to make a cauliflower mash.
So if you're trying to eat a little less carbs
and you wanted to try a cauliflower mash,
I was surprised about how delicious it is.
So you can stay tuned for that.
Then you're gonna add some salt.
So in our house, we have quite the debate
of how much salt is the perfect amount.
(chuckling)
If you ask me, I would say 1/2 a teaspoon,
but my kids like a 1/4 teaspoon.
They say it's too salty otherwise.
So I don't know, you decide.
Start with a 1/4 teaspoon and then taste it.
And if you feel it needs more salt, just add some more salt.
okay, we are ready to assemble.
The traditional French way to do this would be
just to put the potatoes on top.
And you could definitely do that and it would be delicious.
Then you would have two layers, one of beef, one of potato.
But my husband's family does this thing
that he swears is the only way to eat it.
(chuckling)
He thinks it's the best way,
which is to take half of the potato mixture,
put it into the beef and stir this up to combine it,
'cause he says if the beef is dry,
this actually helps with that.
So he likes to have it mixed in first.
Then you can just add the rest of the potatoes on top.
And at first, I thought this was like his invention
until he told me his grandmother used to do it.
And I've seen his mother do it too.
So, and they're from two different families.
So I don't know.
Is this a French thing or is this like a Le Manach thing?
(laughing)
Anybody of French heritage that knows this dish,
leave me a comment and let me know and tell me,
is the mixing traditional or not?
Then you are going to add a cup
of just grated Gruyere cheese all over at the top,
which is quite delicious.
I also think for most traditional hachis parmentier,
they don't put the cheese on it.
I haven't seen it done that way a lot in France,
but it's definitely the Le Manach way.
(laughing)
My husband will eat anything that's gratinee.
So anytime I can add a little cheese
to something, he's happy.
And then I also like to finish
with a little bit of just fresh thyme,
which will bake in that way with the cheese.
And it looks really pretty on top when it's done.
And if you wanted to, you could also add
just a little bit of freshly grated pepper.
(pepper grinding) Okay,
it is ready for the oven.
So we're gonna put this in the oven uncovered
at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20, 25 minutes,
just until the cheese is melted.
And then, for the final three minutes,
just pop it under the broiler
and let that cheese get nice and bubbly, and golden brown.
And when you dive into it, you will see how delicious it is
with those creamy mashed potatoes, the seasoned beef,
and of course, that crispy, bubbly cheese on top.
You can serve it with a tossed salad.
And I'll leave my recipe for my mother-in-law's foolproof
French vinegarette in the description.
Okay, so now for the vegan version.
So for this recipe, I'm going to show you how to make these
in these really cute, individual cast iron skillets.
But you could absolutely take this recipe
and put it into one skillet too, not a problem.
So to replace the meat filling,
we are gonna be doing a combination of lentils,
mushrooms, parsley, and shallots,
which is a really delicious mixture.
And so the first thing you wanna do is get the lentils going
because they do take about 20 minutes to cook.
I like the French green lentils
because they hold their shape after you cook them.
And that just helps them work in this recipe a bit better.
Okay, so I have my rinsed lentils here.
And now, there's lots of opinions, especially online,
about what the proper ratio of lentils to water is.
For me, I like three cups of water to one cup of lentils.
So that's what we're gonna do.
So in my pot here, I'm gonna add my water.
Now that our water is boiling, we can add the lentils.
And then, just give them a stir and cover them,
and put them on a low simmer for about 20 minutes.
So while our lentils are cooking,
now we can cook our mushrooms and our shallots.
You wanna add about a tablespoon of olive oil.
And then to that, we're gonna add a cup of diced shallots.
You could use onions, but I don't know,
I feel like the shallots and the mushrooms
just go really well together.
Then I have two different types of mushrooms here.
I have a cup and a 1/2 of just plain,
white button mushrooms.
So we'll add those in as well.
And then we're also gonna add
a cup and a 1/2 of portobello mushrooms
which I think gives you a bit deeper mushroom flavor.
And a little bit of salt and pepper just to taste.
(sizzling)
And then we're also gonna go back
to our herbs de Provence.
We're gonna do a teaspoon and a 1/2.
And the longer you let the mushrooms cook and get browned,
the deeper the flavor will be.
So don't be afraid to really cook 'em down.
Okay, then at this point,
we're going to add a clove of garlic
that you're just gonna mince, add that in.
And then for little freshness,
we're going to add two tablespoons
of freshly chopped parsley.
And basically, our mushroom mixture is done.
So we're gonna let it just hang out here
until the lentils are ready.
Then we're gonna combine the two.
And meanwhile, we can get working on our cauliflower mash.
Okay, so cauliflower mash is a bit of a trend right now.
You see it kind of everywhere.
And I know why, because if you're craving potatoes,
but you're on a low-carb diet,
they are the perfect solution.
They have a very similar texture
to a potato with like way less carbs.
You're basically gonna cook the cauliflower
just like we did the potatoes.
So I have a large pot of water here.
I'm going to just add a little bit of salt
just because the cauliflower does not have much flavor.
So anything you can do to sort of help it along
is always a good idea.
The other benefit of the cauliflower mash is
you don't have to peel potatoes.
So that is a big time savings.
And it cooks a lot quicker than potatoes.
So this is gonna cook in about 10 minutes.
You just wanna make sure you have enough water in your pot
so that the cauliflower is submerged.
Then you wanna cover it.
Put it on a medium-high flame and let it go for 10 minutes.
Our cauliflower is done.
We are now going to drain them
and put them in this food processor.
This is really the best way I have found
to blend up the cauliflower.
You can also use a blender.
I don't actually drain it because I like to have
a little bit of water in the cauliflower
because that way it actually helps it blend up a bit better.
(chuckling)
Okay, then we're also gonna add a tablespoon of olive oil.
I like to add the olive oil because I find that it gives
the cauliflower a really nice silky, smooth texture.
And then we're gonna add some vegan butter for the flavor.
So I'm gonna do two tablespoons.
(spoon banging)
Okay, and then we're gonna just season
with some salt and some pepper.
(pepper grinding)
Okay, let's puree this up.
(upbeat music)
You can see, it really does have
the texture of like a mashed potato.
Okay, our lentils are done,
and now we're gonna add them to our mushroom mixture.
So oftentimes, it'll just soak up all the water.
But if you have a little bit of water left in there,
sometimes I think it's good,
just so that it gets a little bit saucy.
Okay, and then I'm gonna fill
my little cast iron skillets here.
(upbeat music)
Then you can add your cauliflower mash on top.
I usually do about two good dollops.
And I don't actually cover the whole thing with it
because I think there's something pretty
about the little lentil mixture peeking through.
They can see what's coming.
Now, if you're concerned about your cauliflower mash
being a little bit runny, this is the perfect solution,
is to put it in the oven,
which is something we have to do anyway.
So to heat this all back up,
I pop this in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for just about 10 to 15 minutes,
just so that the lentils get warmed through
and the cauliflower reheats.
And in doing so,
the moisture from the cauliflower gets wicked out
and it actually dries out and becomes even more fluffy.
But if you have runny cauliflower mash
and you're just eating the mash,
you can also pop it in the microwave for a minute or two.
And that will also release some of its moisture
and make it a little bit more fluffy.
Well, I hope you enjoyed
my two versions of hachis parmentier.
For more of my French recipes,
you can click the playlist here.
And for more vegan vegetarian recipes,
you can click the playlist there.
And I'll see you over there, bye.