This is the first pie on Pie or Die, and it’s a meaty one! It is also the first post shot with my new camera instead of my iPhone – still much room for improvement though…

It is an experimental pie that resulted from an idea that I had some time ago. I’ve wanted to try this for very long, and it finally happened. I dare to say it was very successful, and one of the best tasting things I ever made. My only critique is that the filling was a little too sweet, so I would try less sugar next time.

As an experiment, the ratio of dough to filling was way off, but I decided to list the amounts I used regardless – adjust it as you like. The dough was enough for 2.5 pies, and the filling for 4-5.

Ingredients

For the pie crust:

• 160gr butter
• 240gr flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tbsp water

For the filling:

• 300gr chicken liver, cut to bite size
• two large red onions
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup (100ml) red wine
• 1/2 cup (100ml) white sugar
• few sprigs of thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• vegetable oil for frying

Start by making the pie dough, as it should refrigerate for about 1 hour. In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter using a k-beater. Add flour and salt, and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse sand with few butter “rocks”:

Add egg and switch to the dough hook, mixing on low speed until the dough just begins to come together, and looks like ice-cream:

If necessary, add about 1 tbsp of water to help the dough stick together. Remove the dough from the bowl onto plastic wrap. Wrap it tightly and press into a thin disc. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Start making the filling. Slice onion to thin strips. Heat a thin layer of vegetable oil in a pot or saucepan and stir-fry the onion on high heat, until it begins to lose some of its volume.

Add thyme and continue sautee-ing on medium-high heat. When the onion becomes more tender, add two tablespoons of water and sugar. Once the sugar dissolves, add wine and continue cooking on medium heat.

Continue reducing until very thick, and season with salt and pepper.

Move on to preparing the liver. In order to avoid overcooking the liver, we will only sear it very shortly in a pan with little vegetable oil. Let the oil heat up before you add the liver, and stir fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute, just to change the outside color of the liver chunks. Remove from pan immediately to avoid further cooking.

Now comes the fun part of assembling the pies. Roll out the dough and fill the pies, as illustrated in the following animated GIF:

Brush with egg, and bake in an oven, preheated to 180°C, until golden. Cool on a wire rack and dig in!