Ingredients
Braised beef
Potato topping
Method additions
Method
- Heat oven to 150°C. Warm oil in an ovenproof casserole over medium-high heat. Season beef with salt and pepper, sear in batches until golden, then lift out and reserve.
- Lower heat to medium. Cook chopped onion with a pinch of salt for 10 minutes until softened and lightly golden. Add a splash of water if needed to scrape up caramelised residue. Stir in garlic and tomato purée, cook 2 minutes, then pour in red wine and reduce by half.
- Pour in stock and return beef with bouquet garni. Top up with water until liquid reaches two-thirds of the meat’s height. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and transfer to the oven. Braise 3 hours until fork-tender, turning beef every hour. Remove and raise oven to 200°C.
- Meanwhile, cover potato chunks with cold salted water in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer 15–20 minutes until completely tender; drain. Melt butter with milk in a small saucepan.
- Rice potatoes in batches, or push through a sieve into a large bowl. Gradually beat in warm butter and milk until smooth, adding milk if needed for a pipable consistency. Mix through cheese, egg yolk and nutmeg, taste and season, then transfer to a piping bag.
- Shred beef while warm, discarding sinew and large fat pieces. Discard bouquet garni. Simmer sauce over medium heat for 10–15 minutes until thickened, then stir shredded beef back into it and season.
- Pipe mash over the beef filling. Bake 20 minutes until golden on top and sauce is bubbling. Rest 10 minutes before serving.
Equipment
Ovenproof casserole with lid; Large potato saucepan; Small saucepan; Potato ricer or sieve; Mixing bowl; Piping bag; Oven
Notes
- Browning: work in batches so every piece of beef can colour. When the onion goes in, a splash of water will help lift the caramelised residue from the pan.
- Braising liquid: top up with water to reach two-thirds of the meat’s height, and turn the beef every hour.
- Potato texture: use a ricer or sieve, then beat in the warm butter and milk. Add a little more milk if needed to make the mash easy to pipe.
- Finishing: thicken the sauce before mixing it with the shredded beef. Give the baked casserole its full 10-minute rest before serving.
- Allow enough time: the headline is 2 hours plus braising and 10 minutes resting. The Method includes a three-hour braise and a 20-minute bake, so the headline is not the complete elapsed time. Separate prep/cook figures are not supplied.
Photos
4 photos
About this dish
The potato in hachis Parmentier honours Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the eighteenth-century pharmacist who helped persuade France to embrace it. Hachis refers to the chopped meat beneath the mash. One legend captures Parmentier’s flair for persuasion: he had soldiers guard his experimental potato fields by day, then left them unguarded at night. Neighbours stole the apparently precious crop and began to eat it, achieving exactly the result he wanted.
GBC Kitchen makes its filling with braised beef shin, then shreds the meat while warm. Browning leaves a savoury crust in the casserole; loosening it into the sauce keeps that flavour with the beef. The cooking liquid is reduced before the topping goes on, giving the filling substance rather than excess liquid. Above it sits potato enriched with Gruyère, butter, egg yolk and nutmeg. Piping creates ridges that take colour during the final bake. This formulation was developed with Nanna Tate potatoes.
Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Great British Chefs.