A hachis parmentier is a french version of what is called shepherds pie in the english speaking world. Shepherds pie is traditionally made with lamb whereas as hachis parmentier is usually made with beef or duck. Hachis comes from the french verb hacher to chop or ‘mince’ and the word parmentier comes from Antoine-Auguste Parmentier the man who introduced potatoes to France.

Parmentier was trying unsuccessfully to introduce potatoes to France by planting them in Parisian gardens (then only only considered fit for animals) as he considered that they were the answer to the problems of hunger in the country at the time. He finally managed to get the then king Louis XVI on his side – the king agreed to send royal guards to protect the potato plantations knowing full well that this would only kindle the interest of the local population. And indeed the locals wondered about this ‘potato’ that was so precious the king had the plantations guarded. The guards were instructed to turn their backs while the  locals ‘stole’ the plants and in no time at all the potato had become a popular and widespread food item in France! A very clever advertising campaign 🙂

Traditionally there aren’t any vegetables in hachis parmentier but I add some to give a bit of colour and texture to the dish. Its a great way to use left over veg, potatoes and even meat from the previous days dinner.

Ingredients :

For the meat sauce : 

• 500g minced beef
• A large onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2/3 carrots finely chopped
• Handful of peas
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• 350ml beef stock
• Salt and Pepper

For the potato topping : 

• 1kg potatoes
• 250ml warm milk
• 50g butter
• Salt and Pepper
• Pinch of nutmeg (optional)

Method :

1. In a saucepan cook your finely chopped carrots and peas or any other vegetable you have – green beans, leek etc. (already cooked left over veg works well with this recipe)
2. In a large pan fry the onion & garlic in some olive oil and a knob of butter on medium heat for about 5 minutes
3. Stir in the minced beef and cook well on a relatively high heat setting
4. Add salt and pepper
5. Sprinkle in a tablespoon of flour and mix well
6. Pour in your beef stock stirring continuously
7. Mix in your pre-cooked chopped vegetables and set-aside
8. In the meantime, cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 25 minutes or so until cooked
9. Strain and mash the potatoes
10. Season with salt and pepper (and nutmeg if using) and add the butter and milk (adding more if necessary to get the texture you like)
11. Butter a large dish and add a layer of meat. Top with the mashed potatoes.
12. Add a few pieces of butter on top and cook in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes before placing under the grill for 5 more minutes.
13. Serve warm with a green salad. Delicious!

Its another loaf recipe – easy, versatile and perfect for the “goûter” I tend to use my loaf tin more than any other in the kitchen. This recipe is perfect for the autumn season as apples and walnuts are plentiful.

Ingredients :

• 150g softened butter (I just melt it in the microwave)
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g flour
• Teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of bread soda
• Pinch of salt
• 50g raisins (pre-soaked in hot water to plump them up!)
• 60g walnuts
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 200g grated apple (2 apples)

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Beat the eggs and sugar
3. Add the flour, baking powder, bread soda, salt and cinnamon
4. Mix in softened butter
5. Add grated apple, raisins and walnuts
6. Pour into cake tin
7. Bake in pre-heated oven for 50 minutes at 180°C

Courgette (or ‘zucchini’ for some of you!) tart – like a quiche with extra veg 🙂

Ingredients :

• 1 short-crust pastry (see here for recipe)
• 1 small onion
• 200g lardons (smoked if possible)
• 2/3 courgettes
• 20cl crême fraîche or cream
• 3 eggs
• Salt & Pepper

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Wash and finely chop the onion and the courgettes (grating works well too if you prefer)
3. Gently fry the lardons in a pan and then add the onion and courgettes – fry until the excess water from the courgettes evaporates
4. Add salt (not too much because the lardons will be salty) and pepper
5. In a bowl beat the eggs with the crême fraîche (or cream if using)
6. Roll out you pastry and press it into a quiche dish, pricking the base with a fork
7. Spoon the courgette, onions and lardons over the base of the tart
8. Pour over  the egg and cream/crême fraîche mixture
9. Bake in oven for 30 minutes
10. Serve warm with a tossed salad

*  You can always add cheese too, sprinkling on top of the tart before it goes into the oven.  Or to have a vegetarian tart you could replace the lardons with a hard cheese – cheddar works well. Leave out the lardons, mix approx 125g of grated cheese into the cream and egg mixture and continue as above.

The flan is a firm favourite in France (and especially in this house!) and is similar to what is known as a custard tart in english.  I prefer to make it with a short cut pastry but you could make it with a puff pastry.

Ingredients :

• 1 short cut pastry (pate brisée)
• 1 litre of milk
• 3 eggs
• 160g sugar
• 100g cornflour
• 2 sachets vanilla sugar
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla pod

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Roll out your pastry and press it into your tin , prick the base with a fork and place in the fridge while preparing the flan mixture
3. Beat the eggs with the cornflour, the vanilla extract and 125ml of milk (taken from the 1 litre of milk in the recipe) together in a large bowl using an electric mixer
4. Pour the remainder of the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla sugar, the sugar, the vanilla pod (cut the pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and the empty pod halves into the milk).
5. Bring to the boil
6. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture beating all the time with your electric whisk
7. Pour everything back into the saucepan, place on a low heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon
8. Allow it to simmer for a few seconds so that the mixture will have thickened slightly
9. Pour the mixture into your pastry base (remember to remove the vanilla pod halves at this point) and bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180°C
10. Allow to cool completely before cutting and store in the fridge

A breton galette is a large, thin pancake from the Brittany region made with buckwheat flour, usually with a savoury filling – also known in France as a “galette complète” (or complete galette). Here in France you can buy ready-made galettes to which you can add your filling but you can also make your own easily enough.

One word of warning with the buckwheat flour – it has a very short shelf-life so you need to use it fairly quickly after buying – I have been caught out before!

Ingredients :

For the galette 

• 330 g buckwheat flour
• 75 cl water
• 10 g coarse salt
• 1 egg
• Butter

For the filling (per person)

• 1 egg
• Slice of ham
• Grated cheese

Method :

For the galette

1. Add the salt to the flour in a large bowl
2. Make a well in the flour and very slowly add the water mixing energetically all the time with a wooden spoon to obtain a thick liquid batter
3. Add the egg and mix well
4. Leave the batter in the fridge to rest for at least 2 hours

For the breton galette

1. Heat a large pan and add some butter
2. Add a ladle of the batter and move it around to completely cover the bottom of the pan
3. Cook both sides of the galette for 1-2 minutes each side
4. Add your grated cheese and then the sliced ham leaving a space in the middle for the egg
5. Add your egg in the middle of the galette (if you want a well cooked egg you might want to fry it in a separate pan and add once cooked)
6. Once the egg turns white you can fold in each side of the crepe leaving just enough space for the egg yolk.

*You can always chop and change the ingredients with mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes etc.

Most of my baking is destined for the after school snack to which I always refer to in french – the (ou le!) “goûter“.

So what is the goûter exactly?  It is a light snack around 4pm which all french children (and  a lot of french adults) indulge in. It will nearly always include something sweet – cake, bread and chocolat, brioche etc and a fruit and sometimes a yoghurt or some cheese. Some hot chocolate (especially when it is chilly out) or a glass of water or milk.

Breakfast is around 7-8am, lunch at 12pm and dinner at 8pm so it makes sense to have something light to eat half-way between your lunch and evening meal!

It is a lovely tradition that means that as soon as the kids get in the door from school we are all around the table having something to eat and chatting about our day so far and about whats to come – homework, judo, music lessons, football etc.

Some of my “goûter” recipes :

French Yoghurt Cake

Apple Loaf

Fondant au Chocolat (although this is really more of a dessert or for a special goûter! 😉 )

Banana Loaf

Apple, Walnut and Raisin Loaf

Well this definitely isn’t a french recipe but one that I have always made when there were a few bananas left in the fruit bowl!

Ingredients :

• 175g self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of bread soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 125g sugar
• 50g butter
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• 3 bananas
• 50g walnuts

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Sieve flour into a bowl and add sugar, bread soda and cinnamon
3. Melt butter in microwave and mix into the dry ingredients
4. Add milk, walnuts, egg and mashed bananas
5. Mix well
6. Pour into greased loaf tin
7. Bake at 180°C for 40 minutes

The chill in the air this weekend meant I made my first soup in a long time. The main advantage to courgette soup is that it only takes 15 minutes to make. This soup hardly needs a recipe it is so simple but here goes anyway!

Ingredients :

• 1 kg of courgettes
• 2 small potatoes
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 1 portion soft cream cheese such as Kiri

Method :

1. Chop all your veg, put them in a saucepan and cover with chicken stock.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Using a hand mixer blend your veg until all the lumps are gone and then you can add the portion of cream cheese to give your soup a more creamy texture and blend again

*  This soup also works really well with a little curry powder or cumin. Again it depends on your own personal taste.

No recipe for todays baking because it came straight from the Odlums.ie website. I chose the recipe for chocolate chip cookies because it had everything I needed to make them – the only difference is that my muffins are a lot less impressive and a lot less chocolate-y looking than the image on the Odlum’s site. No idea why!! 🙂

Here is the link to the recipe for the Odlums Chocolate Chip Muffins

This recipe is called Poulet Forestier in french which translates to “forest chicken” in english. The word forestier in the name comes from the sauce which is called une sauce forestière because of the mushrooms in the recipe and is a perfect autumn dish. Typically a forestier sauce does not have mustard in it but I find it gives a little something special to the sauce! 🙂

The below serves my family (2 adults, 3 children), I would say it serves 4 adults perfectly.

Ingredients :

• 4 chicken fillets
• 40g butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 20cl dry white wine
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 15cl chicken stock
• 250g mushrooms
• Salt & pepper
• 1 tablespoon of mustard
• 20cl of creme fraîche or liquid cream

Method :

1. Heat the butter in a large pan and brown the chicken fillets
2. Sprinkle in the flour and mix well, then pour in the white wine and continue mixing
3. Add the chopped onion, the garlic, the chicken stock and the mushrooms
4. Season with salt and pepper and then cover the pan and leave it to simmer for about 30 minutes
5. After 30 minutes remove the chicken fillets from the pan.
6. Add the mustard and cream (or crème fraîche) to the pan and mix well so that you get a nice creamy sauce
7. Put the chicken back in the pan and serve hot with potatoes or rice.