Hachis parmentier

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 500 g cooked meat
• 2 500 g potato purée
• 3 2 eggs
• 4 1 bunch parsley
• 5 2 tablespoons oil
• 6 1 shallot
• 7 a little grated cheese
• 8 salt
• 9 pepper
• Total weight: 1,155 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
45 min.	40 min.	1 hour 25 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Preheat the oven to 180°C or 356°F. Prepare and chop 1 shallot.
2	Wash and chop 1 bunch parsley.
3	Grate cheese.
4	Cut 500 g cooked meat (here it's leftover chicken) into small pieces.
5	Put 2 tablespoons oil in a pan on medium heat, then add the chopped shallot and cook for a minute or two.
6	Add the meat, salt and pepper then cook for approximately 5 minutes while stirring well.
7	Remove the pan from heat, then add 2 eggs.
8	... while stirring vigorously.
9	Add parsley.
10	Mix again
11	Butter a large dish.
12	In the bottom put a layer of mashed potato (approximately 1 cm or ½ inch thick).
13	Add all the meat in another layer.
14	Cover with a second layer of mashed potato.
15	And finally add a fine layer of grated cheese.
16	Put in the oven for 20/30 minutes until the top is nicely browned.

Remarks

For a more sophisticated recipe, you can:

• Make more than 4 layers of mashed potato-meat-mashed potato-cheese, for example mashed potato-meat-mashed potato-cheese-meat-mashed potato-cheese. You should, of course, finish with a layer of mashed potato sprinkled with cheese.
• Add some cream to the mashed potatoes
• Add some chopped ham or bacon to the meat

It is worth noting that French "purée" is softer and much richer that traditional British "mash", so makes more of a gratin topping than a pie crust.

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