Playing With My Food: Crawfish Pie

I have a confession to make. I cheat in the kitchen.

My friends would argue with this. They’d tell you how I inherited a slightly-less-severe case of my mother’s Martha Stewart Complex. They would explain how I always insist upon making things from scratch that normal people just buy — coleslaw, potato salad, salsa. That I can’t just use the instant stuff to make banana pudding — I have to make homemade custard. They can tell stories of my constant criticism of things I’ve made, how I should have added more salt to this or cooked that longer. They know that I often make homemade cake (or tiramisu) for birthdays. They would tell you how I am nine different kinds of crazy due to my refusal to use canned frosting. (Buttercream is easy! I swear! And it tastes better! But I digress....)

And they’d be right about all that. But sadly, also, I cheat. And I don’t just mean buying cheese that comes already shredded or using cake mixes. Okay, so I’m not saying I’m a Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade wannabe. I mean, seriously — if that lady put half the time and effort into her food that she puts into her overdone “tablescapes”.... but I do take the easy way out sometimes. And up until recently, one thing I totally faked was crawfish pie.

Not only did I use pre-made pie crusts from the dairy case (I can totally make pie crust, I just don’t normally have the time), I even used a filling mix. Mam Papaul’s. All I did was make the sauce mix according to the box, stir in the crawfish, toss it in a pie crust that came from a factory, and throw it in the oven. Honestly, I felt a little dirty. At the very least, I didn’t feel remotely like I had really cooked anything. I might as well have thrown a frozen pot pie in the oven (Yes, I do that, too. Although I’ve also done it from scratch.)

But last week, I decided that was all over. No, not because I felt so bad about cheating. It was because I realized Schnuck’s had stopped carrying the mix. So I took the next logical step, and went to the internet looking for a recipe. I checked all the usual suspects — All Recipes, RecipeZaar, Cooks.com, even FoodNetwork.com — but couldn’t find a recipe I liked. They all had something that didn’t sound right; canned tomatoes here, cream of mushroom soup there.

And I realized it was time. I had to cowboy up and figure this out for myself. I decided my modified faux-étouffée recipe (I don’t take time to start with roux. Yes, I’m ashamed. Please don’t judge me.) was a good start, and went from there. I think it turned out pretty well, and I’m pretty sure EAToo didn’t have any complaints, because it disappeared pretty fast. You’ll notice that I don’t start with the trinity — I don’t like green peppers or celery. Feel free to swap out if you wish.

Oh, and I went ahead and used the pre-made pie crust anyway. And I didn’t feel the least bit ashamed of skipping the hand-made pastry. Much. Go ahead and do it the old-fashioned way if you get the urge — I’m sure I’ll eventually get all obsessive-compulsive and do it myself, anyway.


Crawfish Pie

EA’s Crawfish Pie

8 oz. (1 stick) butter
1 red bell pepper
1 small onion
2-3 cloves garlic
12 oz. crawfish meat with fat
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. hot sauce
3 tbsp. flour
½ c. heavy cream
3 eggs
2 pre-prepared pie crusts

Preheat oven to 350°. Finely dice bell pepper and onion. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute pepper and onion in butter for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and continue to cook, stirring, for 5 more minutes. Vegetables should be soft, but not caramelized.

Stir in crawfish meat, salt, pepper, and hot sauce, and cook for another minute or so, until the temperature in the pan comes back up. Sprinkle flour over top, distributing evenly, and mix well, continuing to cook and stir for another minute. Add cream, mixing well. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Place one pie crust in the bottom of an ungreased pie pan. Prick bottom and sides with fork. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs. Stir eggs into the cooled crawfish mixture, combining well. Pour crawfish mixture into pie shell. Top with second pie crust; seal edges well and cut slits or prick top with fork to allow steam to come out.

Cover edges of pie crust with crumpled strips of foil (unless you have these, which I want desperately) to prevent burning, and bake for approximately 45-50 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Allow pie to cool for a few minutes before cutting. Makes 4-6 servings.

Ingredient notes:

1. I like red bell pepper in this, partially because I like them and partially because it looks pretty. If you prefer green pepper, or orange, or yellow, feel free to substitute. If you want to get all traditional and use the trinity, go ahead. I just don’t see the point in celery.



2. The frozen crawfish I have found lately comes in 12 oz. packages. Up until very recently, it came in 16 oz. packages. If you can find the 16 oz., or find it fresh, great. But just know that a few months ago they were charging you the same price for 33% more meat.



3. As far as hot sauce goes, use whatever you have handy. I suppose Tabasco would be the norm, but I tend to use Sriracha, because that’s what I keep around. Feel free to substitute your favorite, and use more if you like that sort of thing.