Russian Meat Pie

Let me start this post by saying that I've never done anything like this from scratch. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever having a truly homemade meat pie before either. Usually it's one of those prepared from frozen meat pies (which we don't often), and those are alright, but I've always found the top crust a bit... tasteless...

Now, I don't know whether this is a truly Russian recipe (it's probably not), but I found and translated this recipe from a Russian-language website. What intrigued me about it was the use of eggs - 6 eggs to be exact! (I know, what???!!!) - also the dough for its crust, which is a basic non-sweet pastry dough. One of the more important outcomes from this was that hubby liked it!!! Oh and did I mention that he does NOT eat eggs?

So, without further ado, here's the Russian Meat Pie recipe.
(as usual, click on the image to enlarge)

Meat pie, complete with delicious moist crust!

Ingredients:
~ FOR THE DOUGH
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup of all-purpose flour (of wholewheat for the health conscious)
* 1/2 cup of sour cream (or kefir, if you know what it is and can find it)
* 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
* 1/2 tsp of baking soda (don't "react" it with anything)
* 1 tsp of salt

~ FOR STUFFING
* 3 eggs (hard-boiled)
* 400-500 g of ground meat (I used about a pound of ground beef+pork+veal mix; ground chicken I imagine would be delicious as well)
* 1/2 of medium onion (I also added garlic cause I love garlic!)
* salt & pepper to taste
* Optional: I had leftover corn so I added that in as well; I think that peas and even carrots would be great as well.

Directions:
1. Mix together sour cream and mayonnaise.











2. In a bowl combine the eggs, sour cream+mayo, soda and salt; mix well.

3. Mix in the flour; make sure you have no clumps.

4. Once you mix all of the dough ingredients, it should have consistency of think sour cream (note that if you used kefir, it'll be a bit thinner).

5. Now for the stuffing... Chop the onion as coarse or as fine as you like it; saute till golden (add garlic if that's your thing).

 6. Add the ground meat to the skillet and cook on medium-low separating and making sure that all is mixed well.
~ Depending on how fast your oven heats up, preheat the oven to about 390°F (200°C)

7. Continue mixing till the meat is cooked.

8. While your meat is cooking, finely chop the hard-boiled eggs.

9. Once your meat is cooked, mix in your optionals (if you're using any).

10. Now all you have to do is assemble your pie and bake it. Pour about  one half of the dough mixture into the pie form.

11. Layer the meat stuffing.

12. Layer the chopped hard-boiled eggs.

13. Pour the rest of the dough mixture over top. Mine was a bit thick, so spreading it was kind of a challenge; just take your time with it.









14. Bake at 390°F for about 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden. Enjoy!

Here are a few time-saving tips:

~ start by boiling your eggs; this way by the time you're ready to chop them they are nice and cooled down
~ mix the dough while the meat is cooking

Cheers,