Got some left over meat you want to do something with? Make a Hachis Parmentier! Yeah, you have no idea how to pronounce that, and neither did I even after hearing it over and over again (in French). Here’s a helpful pronunciation gloss: HA-she PAR-mon-tee-ay.

Basically it’s what the English-speaking world calls shepherd’s pie. Ground up leftover meat and vegetables (carrots in particular) on the bottom, mashed potatoes on top, optionally topped off with a healthy layer of shredded cheese. Or at least this is how Stephanie likes it, and it’s similar to how her sister made it for us in France.

I’ve wanted to tweak the recipe a bit, reducing the potato to meat ratio to about 3:2, and adding a few bonus ingredients. Tonight I had my chance. I finely chopped up some leftover “burgundy-seasoned” lamb tips (that were crazy good by the way, you can find them at Trader Joe’s) along with some homemade meatballs we had in the freezer. Then I browned them together in a little bacon fat and olive oil. To this I added a lot of shredded carrots and a bunch of peas.

This went on the bottom of a long baking dish which I dusted with some herbes de provence, and then I topped with little dollops of goat cheese (chèvre) here and there. Meanwhile I’d been steaming some skinned and large diced russet potatoes, which I mashed with a half cup of melted butter and about a half cup of whole milk and a teaspoon of salt. I gently spread the mashed potatoes on top of the goat cheese, meat, and veggies, and then topped it all off with some grated parmesan. Oh yeah, it got some little bits of butter on top too.

After 30 minutes at 400 degrees, here’s how it came out: