Whatever. It's cheese and onion pie!

This week was Savory pie week.  I am going to try out various things, and sort of try to keep things consistent.  So, once a month, you will see a savory pie on the list.  Next month, I may try to tackle hot water crust.  This was not that week, though.  But, I did manage to find a new and interesting recipe for crust, and we all loved it.  I also had to adapt this, because I forgot to buy vinegar!  Whoopsie!  But this crust was much lighter than Basic Bitch, and almost creamy in texture, while keepin' it flaky in a good way.  It's an adaptation from an old Ukrainian recipe I found.

In some recipes I will recommend you grease your pie pan.  This is one of those recipes, because it's not just fat and flour.  There's a little more to this one, so don't skip that step.

I have long been intrigued by onion pies, but have never tried to make one.  I found a few recipes, and discovered that it has roots in many cultures.  I am not exactly sure if the one I came up with is anything remotely resembling something of a particular region, but I, personally have Eastern European roots, as well as Mediterranean ones, so I just took ideas from both regions, and ran with them.  I'm going to call this a savory onion and cheese pie, and hope it lands well for you all.

My family loved it.  It took us a few meals to finish it, because it was pretty rich, but it did make for a really great side, and we got to try it two ways: hot, and cold.  I think we all liked it cold the next day a bit more, so if I do this again, that is how I will serve it.  It wasn't bad hot, but it really shone after it had had some time to marry the flavours together, so I recommend making this a day before you actually serve it.

That said, here is the recipe.  I hope you give it a whirl, and enjoy it as much as we did!

You will need:

2 large mixing bowls

Large, clean, smooth surface area for kneading/rolling dough

Pastry Blender, or fork

Food scale, or measuring cups

9" pie dish.  Glass works best, so you can see whether your crust is baked on the bottom.

Cling film

Small cup for mixing bicarb with lemon

Frying pan

Cooking utensil

Measuring spoons

Ingredients For Crust

300 grams flour (2 cups)

200 grams buttter (1 3/4 sticks)

6 tbsp sour cream

1 tsp bicarb of soda

Juice of one lemon

2 tbsp water, if needed

Ingredients For Filling

1 lb container of labne (Kefir cheese)

8 oz feta cheese

6 Onions
4 garlic cloves, finely minced, or pressed.

1 jar pitted Kalamata Olives

2 tbsps olive oil

1 tbsp cumin seed

1 tbsp coriander seed

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 tbsp sumac

4 tbsp Zaatar blend

5 eggs

Method: 

Cut butter into flour.

Add sour cream. 

In a small cup, juice one lemon, and add one teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, allowing it to fizz.

Immediately pour onto the rest of ingredients, and begin mixing together.  Use a small amount of water if needed to bring crust together.

 You should end up with a clean bowl, by the time you are done mixing.  

Take your ball of dough, wrap in cling film, and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.

Make filling:

Chop your onions and garlic.

Empty containers of labne and feta into a bowl. 

Sautee onions in olive oil.

Drain jar of kalamata olives, and add them to the bowl with the cheeses. 

Add all of your spices to the hot pan once your onions are slightly caramelized, and cook one minute more, to bring out the flavour in the spices.   And JUST before you are done, add the garlic.

 Pour onion mixture on top of cheeses and olives.  

Mix well, allowing onions to cool.  

Add 4 eggs.  They can all be added at once, and mixed in.  It's a simple mixture, and there is no worry of anything splitting here.

Grease your pie plate, and take your ball of dough.  Mark it so that it looks like it is about to be cut into thirds.  Cut off one third of the dough from the ball, and take the remaining two thirds.

Dust your surface with flour.  

Take your 2/3 ball of dough, and start bashing it evenly with a rolling pin.  This ensures the dough won't crack as badly as it would if you tried rolling it out at this size and temperature.  It keeps it cold, and it allows it to disperse evenly.  You may still need to push some dough back together, if it does crack.  That is fine.  Once you start to see the right shape, you can begin rolling the dough. Do one roll, then turn it 1/4 of the way around a circle.  Roll again, and continue until your dough is rolled to your desired size.  I try to get it to a twelve inch circle.

Take the sides of your dough, and fold them over the rolling pin to move onto your greased pie plate. 

 Drop it on there. 

 There should be a small amount of extra dough.  Break off a small piece, and use that to gently press it into place.  Pie crust seems to like itself more than it likes you, so this will be an effective way to get it to do what you want.

Now, fill the pie shell with your filling.  It should just fit.

Next, take the remanining dough, and anything you have trimmed off.  Make another ball out of it, and repeat the rolling process.  

Gently lay it on top of the pie, and crimp it on to the bottom shell.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes, and preheat your oven to 350 F or 180 C.

When the 30 minutes is up, brush the top of your pie with egg wash. (Your last egg, and one teaspoon water, whisked well.)  Bake for 35-45 minutes.  This can be served warm, or cold.  If you serve it warm, allow 10-15 minutes before cutting.

Serves 8-10

Enjoy!

-H