FFwD: Hachis Parmentier

One picture is definitely worth a thousand words. Does this photo give you a clue about our feelings for this week's FFwD recipe, Hachis Parmentier (or Shepherd's Pie)?


We did have a choice in the preparation between boiling pieces of beef and creating our own beef broth, or choosing a less complicated version that uses ground beef. Since I have a freezer full of ground beef, I chose the more simple route. The results, however, were not simple at all.


I sauteed the ground beef and sausage together, and when they were nearly all browned, I threw in some minced garlic and thyme along with the tomato paste and some beef broth. I seasoned the meats as they were cooking. (My sausage was sweet Italian sausage from Trader Joe's, easy to remove from the casing and crumble.)

The mashed potatoes were made as I always make them, hand-mashed with cream and butter.

I used a 9" pie plate for the cooking vessel, placing the meat layer on the bottom, followed by the mashed potato layer. I used a generous grating of Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses with dots of butter to top it off.



The end result was superb.



It was a good thing that I only made half a recipe, because the two of us polished it off in record time. Had I made a full recipe, we would have done the same. Clearly, it disappeared before the camera could record any servings. It was that good.

This is definitely one recipe that will become a regular around here. For more opinions, stop by the French Fridays with Dorie website.