In praise of the humble potato: Parmentier

Potatoes are an ingredient that seem to have been around forever, so it was a surprise to find out that the first potato did not reach the shores of Europe until the end of the sixteenth century. In winter I love potatoes – jacket potatoes, Jansson’s Temptation, potato gratin, and my favourite Leek and Potato soup. I’ve always thought that Shepherd’s or Cottage Pie, another potato favourite, was a uniquely British dish. Until now, it has not been something that I’ve cooked very often due to our childhood memories of grey mince and Smash synthetic mashed potatoes, but I decided that it was worthy of further investigation from a vegetarian or vegan perspective.

The name Cottage Pie can be traced back to 1791, a time when the potato was introduced as an edible crop for the poor. It was basically any leftover meat with a topping of mashed potato. In the UK, Cottage pie is generally accepted as based on minced beef and Shepherd’s Pie on minced lamb, although this later description did not appear until almost a century later.

In France, I’d noticed a ready-meal in the chiller cabinets named ‘Parmentier’ which looked remarkably like Cottage Pie. I discovered that this was indeed a French version of what I’d always considered to be a quintessentially British dish. Hachis Parmentier comprises mashed potato topping a base of ground meat, either mixed together or in layers like the traditional British version. There is also Brandade de Morue Parmentier which is actually fish pie.

Antonine-Augustin Parmentier (1737–1813) was a French Army pharmacist, nutritional chemist and latterly in his career Inspector General of the Health Service. He was a great proponent of the humble potato, which at this time were only permitted for use as animal feed. In fact, in France his name is synonymous with many potato-based dishes. Human consumption of potatoes was actually outlawed in France as they were believed to cause leprosy. Thanks to Parmentier’s work, potatoes were finally declared edible in France in 1772, but it was not until potatoes saved the population from famine  following crop failures in 1785 that potatoes were finally accepted by the public.

Traditional French recipes for Parmentier are very similar to their British counterparts. However, the puree of potatoes is augmented with milk, cream, butter, mustard and gruyere cheese to create a rich unctuous top layer. The meat element is flavoured with onion, shallot, garlic, carrot and more butter. When developing my vegan version of Cottage Parmentier Pie I decided to go down the French route and include some soya cream and lots of vegan butter in the creamy mash plus a dash of Dijon mustard.

Cottage Parmentier Pie

 

Ingredients

800g potatoes
One medium onion, diced

Two garlic cloves

One cup uncooked green lentils, soaked150g carrots, diced (three medium carrots)

One tsp dried thyme

One tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

One tsp Dijon mustard

Vegan stock cube made up into 500 ml stock

One tbsp vegan butter

Two tbsp arrowroot

50ml soya cream

Method

·         Dice potatoes into cubes and boil until soft and fluffy in salted water. Drain thoroughly.

·         Add butter, Dijon mustard and soya cream and mash well, until creamy

·         Sauté onion and garlic until soft, then add lentils, thyme, carrots and stock

·         Simmer gently until lentils and carrots cooked

·         Add arrowroot and a little more water if necessary then whisk to make thickened sauce

·         Arrange lentil mix in  bottom of pie dish and top with mashed potato mix

·         Bake at 200^oC for 20–25 minutes until top golden and crunchy