The times of the USSR have long sunk into oblivion, but they left quite a few nostalgic memories in the children of that generation. One of such bright childhood moments was the fried pie with liver. At one time, all Soviet children were eating these pies, washing down with tomato juice and burning tongues. If you suddenly wanted to reproduce the taste of Soviet childhood in your own kitchen, then we offer you some simple recipes.
Ingredients for the dough
In order to make roast and delicious Soviet fried liver pies, you will need: 500-600 grams of flour (premium), six grams of fresh yeast (active), two tablespoons of granulated sugar, a teaspoon of salt, one glass (200 ml) water, 20 grams of vegetable oil.
Ingredients for Liver Filling
For the filling you will need both meat offal and vegetables, spices, herbs. The meat filling for pies with liver is beef lungs, liver (veal or beef), heart. A standard recipe requires 300 grams of each meat product.
As for vegetables, here many act on the principle of "on the fan." Someone does not like a lot of onions, someone prefers not to put carrots. But in the classic recipe should be present: parsley root, one large carrot, 4-5 bulbs.
Spices: salt, ground black pepper, black pepper with peas, bay leaf, clove.
For frying: 0.6-0.8 ml of vegetable oil.
Utensils necessary for work
A very large amount of work is the processing and preparation of the liver - filling. Pies with liver, as in Soviet times, must be prepared in large quantities. For cooking, you will need: a five-liter pan (for cooking the liver), a pan (for frying pies) and a meat grinder.
Cooking stuffing
Preparing the filling for liver pies is a rather productive, voluminous and time-consuming process. Therefore, it should begin with the liver. Component fillings are prepared in many ways. To cook the right liver pies, as in Soviet times, you need to boil the heart and lungs, and put out the liver in a frying pan.
Before you boil offal, they must be thoroughly washed, cut into small pieces. In the water where the liver is cooked, add parsley root, a whole onion and carrot, cut into several large pieces. Initially, we cook everything over high heat. As soon as the water begins to boil, we reduce the fire, remove the resulting foam and cook on slow. The approximate cooking time of the liver is two hours.
Salt and add bay leaf only at the end of cooking. After the lungs and liver are ready, water should not be poured. Let the offal be swept and reach, as experienced cooks say. Thus, pies with liver fried Soviet will turn out more juicy and nourished aromas of meat.
As for the preparation of the liver, it is placed in a pan, filled with water and stewed for half an hour. After stewing, the liver is cut. Finely chopped onions are fried in a separate frying pan. The liver is added to it only when the onion is finally browned.
After these manipulations, all by-products are passed through a meat grinder. Onions are also finely chopped with the help of a kitchen assistant. Salt, ground allspice is added.
Cooking dough
It is important to remember that in order to prepare the correct liver pies, as in Soviet times, it is necessary to use only live yeast to prepare the dough. Before preparing the dough, they are diluted in warm water and put in a warm place until the appearance of the "cap". While the yeast is infused, all the other ingredients for the dough are mixed. Yeast is added to the resulting mass. The final version of the test is mixed.
In order for the dough to be saturated and lush, it should be properly kneaded during the raising process. It is better if you divide the entire volume of the dough into three equal parts and place them in different dishes. As soon as the dough rises, it should be kneaded, shifted several times along and several across. This is done two or three times. In this case, you will achieve the perfect result, as in the "those" times in the dining rooms.
Pie shaping
Too many housewives face the problem of sticking dough to their hands and countertops. To avoid this, use vegetable oil. Lubricate both the table and your own hands with oil. So the dough will be malleable, will not remain on the hands or work surface. How to cook liver pies if there has never been a special friendship with the test? The problem is solvable. Follow the instructions and everything will work out.
To begin with, you should divide each of the already existing three parts of the test into four more. Form a tight ball from each part. From this ball a pie will be formed. You can fix the pies as you like: to form a pigtail, pinch the edges, etc. The dough for pies with liver should be malleable and obedient. Do not be afraid to do something wrong, you can always mix a piece and form a pie again.
Important tip: do not put too much filling. Fried pie can easily crack during cooking.
Cooking pies
Pies with liver are fried, as in Soviet times, in oil. We take a spacious frying pan or pan, pour a rather large amount of vegetable oil there and wait until it boils. Throw the pie gently into the boiling oil and fry on both sides to a delicious brownish crust.
Remember that you should definitely get rid of excess oil. Pat the patties with paper towels or napkins. Pies with liver, as in Soviet times, should be fried, but not oily. Remember your childhood, then your hands didn’t get dirty so much and the oil didn’t drip down the "mustache".
Orsk pies
Famous throughout the Union were pies from the Orenburg region. At that time they were sold in huge cans. For cooking, a special machine was used, so the pies were obtained in perfect shape, with smooth edges.
The secret of their preparation lies in the filling. For cooking, not beef or veal offal is used, but chicken. For preparation you will need: a pound of chicken liver (stomach, liver, kidneys, heart), five large onions, salt and pepper (to taste).
The cooking process is exactly the same as in the first recipe. Only the dough is made a little more liquid. It should spread in the hand and form a kind of cake. You don’t even need to roll out, which saves time. The filling is placed in the middle of such a cake, the cake is stuck on the edges. After that, you need to make a small sausage or sausage out of the pie. Roll it several times with his hands, as if twisting something. So the pie will be more similar to those pies with liver, as in Soviet times they were prepared in Orenburg and called orskish throughout the country.
Secrets of preparing a liver from experts
Professional chefs advise you to cook liver a little differently. Not only offal and onion are used, but also garlic. Professionals say that liver pies, the recipe of which does not include the addition of garlic, do not turn out so fragrant and tasty.
The rest of the process is the same as described above. The only exception: when you have already cooked the liver and grind it in a meat grinder, the minced meat should be fried in a pan with the addition of aromatic oil. So the filling will be more fragrant and supple during the packaging process in a pie.
Liver pies can be cooked not only in a frying pan, deep-fried, but also in the oven. If you try to eat less fried and avoid such a large amount of oil in cooking, then the option with an oven is ideal. By the way, if you bake pies in the oven, then you can use not only yeast dough, but also puff for cooking. But remember: this will be a more modern, not Soviet, option.