Many people think of French cooking as particular, finicky, and difficult. It is a dish like this one that disproves all of those stereotypes. The French not only cook haute cuisine, but they also know and cook wonderful comfort dishes, including hachis parmentier.
This dish is borne of a desire to promote the use of potatoes in France in the 18th century by a man named Antoine-Augustin Parmentier. This led to the use of the term ‘parmentier’ to describe many dishes potato. The word ‘hachis’ describes a dish in which the ingredients are chopped or minced, from the same root as the English word “hatchet”. Mr. Parmentier has another dish named after him as well – Pommes Parmentier, cubed potatoes fried in butter.
This dish is well worth the time it takes to cook it. It requires minimal cooking skill and provides maximal enjoyment. We ate the whole thing in one sitting.
Oops.
