Pies can be an independent snack or addition to the main dish. An important aspect is the properly prepared filling. It is especially difficult to prepare products that have special palatability. An interesting option would be beef liver filling for pies. But beef liver requires special preparation and proper preparation, otherwise the taste of baking will be completely spoiled.
Secrets to choosing the perfect product
Pies with beef liver will turn out to be really tasty and fragrant, if you choose a fresh and high-quality product. Secrets regarding the choice of offal are as follows:
- When buying a liver, you should pay attention to color and smell. The color of the fresh product resembles ripe cherries, and the smell has a sweetish touch.
- It is worth using exclusively fresh or chilled offal, as a frozen liver can be spoiled and absorb a lot of extraneous odors.
- In order not to buy too hard a liver, which during the heat treatment may not soften, you need to choose small pieces.
During the purchase process, you should familiarize yourself with the documents, which contain all the information about the animal’s health status and test results.
How to properly prepare the product for processing
A tender and tasty beef liver filling will be obtained only when the product is prepared in accordance with all culinary rules and recommendations. You need to process beef liver as follows:
- First, it should be washed in cold running water.
- Soak the product in warm water for several minutes.
- Pull out and pat with a paper towel.
- Make cuts on the sides and pry off the top film, which must be removed.
- Be sure to remove the veins and the remains of the bile ducts. Cut the liver into small pieces immediately.
- Soak the product in milk for one hour. Then pull out the pieces and put on paper napkins for drying.
Next, heat treatment is carried out, which is determined by its nuances.
Secrets regarding liver preparation
There are two ways to prepare the filling for pies - the product is boiled or fried. At the same time, all cooking rules must be strictly observed. Then the pieces will be soft and tender.
So that the offal does not become hard and does not have an unpleasant odor, you need to know exactly how much to cook beef liver for pies. First you need to put it in a pan and put it on the stove. When the water boils, add spices and reduce the heat to a minimum. Cooking lasts 35 minutes. Readiness can be checked as follows: pierce the largest piece deeply, if a clear liquid is released, the product is ready.
Fry the liver as follows: put small pieces in a well-heated pan. After five minutes, you need to turn over each piece and fry this part for the same amount of time. Spices and salt are added exclusively at the end of the frying.
Standard filling for any kind of pies
The simplest filling for beef liver pies, which is particularly versatile, is prepared from a simple set of products and is very simple. The following ingredients need to be prepared:
- ½ kg of liver.
- 1 onion.
- 1 carrot.
- Bay leaf and allspice.
- Other spices.
Cooking principle:
- Boil the offal until cooked. It is worth putting a bay leaf and allspice in the pan to remove the bright smell of the liver.
- Cut the onions into small cubes, and grate the carrots on a coarse grater.
- Fry onions with carrots until cooked. For frying it is worth using butter or olive oil.
- Mix the liver and vegetable frying, add salt and other spices. Pass the mass through a meat grinder.
The result is a pasty paste that looks more like liver paste.
Features of the preparation of the liver for fried pies
Fried pies with beef liver need to be prepared especially skillfully, since this type of baking is easy to dry. In addition, the smell of vegetable oil can interrupt the smell and aroma of the filling.
Required Products:
- 1 kg of the main ingredient.
- 2 large onions.
- Half a glass of sour cream.
- Spice.
Additionally, mushrooms can be used. Most often, champignons or oyster mushrooms are prepared.
The principle of preparation of the filling for fried pies is as follows:
- Grind the cleaned and already soaked liver with the onion using a meat grinder.
- Put a small piece of butter in a pan, and then pour sour cream.
- Pour the chopped liver with onions here. Fry the mass until the main product is crumbly.
- Add spices and mix. Turn off the stove and cover the contents.
Mushrooms need to be added at the moment when the animal component reaches half-preparedness. Next, the finished component for the pies cools and is embedded in the dough.
Tender beef liver filling with garlic and herbs
For such a trivial dish, it is worth using the original fillings, which are distinguished by the simplicity of the products and cooking. The filling for pies from beef liver, garlic and herbs is prepared according to this principle.
First pick up the products:
- 0.5 kg of beef liver.
- Bulb.
- Spice.
- 2 cloves of garlic.
- Fresh greens.
- Sour cream or cream.
You must first prepare the liver. You can not soak the product in milk, since the finely ground ingredient must be stewed in sour cream or cream. Enough 10 minutes of heat treatment. So that the component gives juice and is saturated with taste, you can add several tablespoons of vegetable oil to the dairy product.
When the milk substance is evaporated and absorbed by the liver, it is worth adding finely chopped onions to the pan. To the vegetable does not burn, add a little more vegetable oil. Squeeze the garlic a few minutes before cooking the main ingredients.
At the end, mix the cooled mixture of liver, onion and garlic. Add finely chopped greens. It is worth using parsley, dill, celery, basil. Add spices. If necessary, add 1 egg, which will help fasten the resulting substance.
Variety of standard filling
The filling recipe for beef liver pies requires only a few ingredients:
- 1/3 kg of the liver.
- ½ cup rice.
- 1 onion.
- Spices according to taste preferences.
Component preparation:
- Pre-prepared liver cut into very small pieces. This type of grinding will reduce the cooking time of the ingredient.
- Chop the onion as best as possible.
- Mix the two components and fry in a pan until cooked. Add spices. For frying, it is advisable to use sour cream with olive oil, then the products will acquire a light creamy tinge on the palate.
- Boil rice. Leave in a colander for 10-15 minutes to remove excess moisture.
- Stir all the ingredients and mince.
Liver potato filling
The filling for beef liver patties can be combined in equal proportion with another ingredient. An ideal option would be potatoes. You need to boil 0.5 kg of potatoes, from which then you need to make mashed potatoes.
Put out the liver and onion passed through the meat grinder. You can add a few spoons of sour cream. Here you also need to put herbs and spices. Then mix the two main ingredients and add a little melted butter.
You need to set the filling aside for 10-15 minutes before putting it into the dough. Then the mixture will be homogeneous, and all tastes will completely mix and distribute. You can additionally give time so that the filling is in the test.
Cooking secrets
It is not enough just to know how to cook beef liver for pies, you need to understand the general principles of cooking such a dish.
If the filling turned out to be too dry, and the consistency itself is heterogeneous, then you can add an egg or a little sour cream to the mixture before laying in the dough. If the opposite happened, then you need to add a little breadcrumbs.
So that the taste of the dough does not interrupt the special aroma of the base, it is worth using fresh versions of the flour base. In this case, it is advisable to use more fillings - in this product, the share of dough should be no more than 15% of the total volume.
An interesting option for pies would be not a liver processed in a paste, but cut into small pieces. In addition, each slice retains a special aroma and taste. As for the pie itself, it turns out neat, the inside does not follow from the flour base.