Chicken Liver Meatloaf

Lamb meatloaf ("drob de miel"), made with lamb organs, is a traditional Romanian dish served on Easter... My mother in law makes it every year. Occasionally my mother would prepare it too, though she uses it as a stuffing for roast lamb more often (which seems to be more of a Hungarian way of preparing lamb in Transylvania.)

I thought I should finally try the chicken version, since it would be quite a challenge to find lamb organs here is the States, and I prefer to cook with chicken, anyway. The basic recipe is fairly simple, and although it is quite time-consuming, the result is well worth the effort: for the lamb version, you cook all the organs of the poor animal, chop or mince it along with 1-2 bunches of scallions, 1 bunch each of dill and parsley, some hard boiled eggs, wrap the mixture in the animal's stomach (sounds appalling, I know, but it really is good, and my version skips this step anyway, so please stick with me), then bake it.

There are plenty of recipes out there for the chicken version, too, mine is a little different, in that I used a smaller number of eggs, and covered the meatloaf in a butter pie shell, which actually makes it a pie, I guess, not a meatloaf. The modifications were due to necessity: I ran low on eggs on Easter, of all days, when every grocery store is closed, so I had to make a butter pie crust, instead of one with eggs, while hoping that the two raw eggs I put in the liver/gizzard mixture would hold the whole thing together. They did, but next time I think I'll increase the number of raw eggs for the recipe, to at least 3, or even 4. I should also say that the hard boiled eggs are optional: this time I added them to the recipe, because that's the way my mother and mother in law (both Romanians) do it.

The recipe I'm posting serves 8, but it can easily be halved.

Before baking

Ingredients:

2 lb chicken liver, cleaned

1 lb chicken gizzard, thoroughly cleaned

(If you can find some chicken hearts, please use some - I couldn't find any)

2 bunches scallions, chopped

1 bunch dill, chopped

1 bunch Italian parley, chopped

3 hard boiled eggs (optional)

3 raw eggs (maybe even 4)

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter
2 pie shells

After baking, on first serving

Ingredients for the pie shells:

2 and a half cups all purpose flour, more for dusting.

1 cup cold butter cubed

1/2 teaspoon salt

4-6 tablespoons ice cold water.

*Preparing the pie shell:
Cube the butter, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes -1 h. In a large bowl combine flour and salt, cut in butter until the mixture has the appearance of coarse crumbs (I'm always using my hands, you can use a food processor, it needs only a few pulses), drizzle with 4 tablespoon waters and start working the dough together, adding more water as you go. Don't overwork the dough, work it only until it just comes together. Also, be careful with he water: too much water will make the dough tough and not flaky. When the dough comes together, shape it in a ball, cut it in half, flatten each half lightly with the ball of your hand. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 30 minutes before rolling. When you're ready to make the pie, remove from the fridge, and let rest 5-10 minutes before actually rolling.

Preparing the meatloaf:

Put the gizzards and the liver in two separate pots with cold water, add some salt to the gizzards' water (don't add salt to the liver), bring to boil and cook until done (15-20 minutes for the liver, about an hour for the gizzards). Hard boil 3 eggs. While meat and eggs are cooking, heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan, add scallions and saute them on medium for 5 minutes.

Second serving

When the liver, eggs and gizzards are ready, finely chop everything in a food processor or meat grinder: liver, gizzards, scallions, dill, parsley and boiled eggs. Season with salt and pepper, mix in the raw eggs. Butter a 9 inch round, or 8x8 inch square glass baking dish with the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, line the dish with one pastry shell, prick all over with a fork, add the meat mixture and cover with the second shell, prick with a fork (if you have some eggs left, brush the pastry with an egg wash). Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the pie crust is nice and golden. Serve with mashed potatoes and a green leaf salad (or tomato salad), and a glass of full bodied red wine.
Leftovers are great in sandwiches, it also freezes well.