food

This is one that I’ve been working on for a while and found that the Gouda cheese and heavy whipping cream makes all the difference. I used my big blue 13.5×9.5 baking dish for this one so it’s large enough to feed about 8-10 people. I don’t do a lot of measuring but I just kinda spitball the size of the ingredients. Here’s what I used.

12-ounce bag of cleaned crawfish tails

1-2 cups of small cooked deveined-tail-off shrimp

1/2 stick of melted butter

1&1/2 cup of chopped sweet onion

3 cups of macaroni noodles

1&1/2 cups of shredded gouda cheese

1&1/2 cups of shredded Colby jack cheese

1 four-ounce square of cubed Velveeta cheese

1 tbsp. Seafood Magic

1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning

1-pint heavy whipping cream

salt and pepper to taste

1 box of the Frenches fried onions for topping

First, I boiled the macaroni noodles and drained them. While the noodles were still hot after draining, I put the noodles back in the boiling pan and mixed in about 2 tablespoons of butter to the noodles and then put the shredded cheese and Velveeta cheese in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. I put the hot noodlwes on top of the cheese to help the cheese melt.

In a frying pan I melted another 1/4 stick of butter and sauteed the onions, then added the crawfish tails and seasoning. I let the crawfish cook for about 5 minutes with the sauteed onions, then I drained the crawfish and onions before adding them to the macaroni and cheese mixture in the bowl. I stirred the mixture until a lot of the cheese melted and then folded in the whipping cream. salt and pepper to taste.

I put the mixture in my big blue baking dish and topped with the Frenches fried onions and covered. I baked the mixture for 30 minutes covered and 10-15 minutes uncovered at 350 degrees. I removed it and let it cool for a couple minutes before serving.

It was probably close to 30 years ago when I had my first taste of a crawfish pie. Prior to that first taste I was a bit skeptical of a pie that wasn’t sweet. Pie was supposed to be sweet and the thought of putting seafood in a pie was beyond me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve ate my share of chicken pot pies over the years, but I never dreamed you could use seafood in a pie. My grandmother used to make homemade minced meat pies out of leftover pot roast, but the pies she made were still a bit sweet with sugar and raisins added to the finely ground roast. Minced meat and rhubarb pies were a favorite of mine at my grandmother’s house growing up so I figured “what the heck”, might as well add a mudbug pie to the list of weird pies I’ve eaten.

My old buddy Steve Bumblis, a friend from my Navy days in San Diego as well as New Orleans introduced me to crawfish pie one evening when I was a guest at his house for dinner. He made one pie for our dinner that night, and he made one pie for me to take home. By the time I finished my second slice of crawfish pie at dinner, it left me wanting more, and the cool part was that Steve made me another one for me to enjoy at home. Steve was a good friend but passed 10 years ago and every time I have crawfish pie it reminds me of Steve and New Orleans. This recipe is in memory of an old friend.

You may want to play with the ingredients and tweak it to your liking. Some of the sizes of the ingredients I just kinda spitball these days.

Ingredients:

12-ounce bag of cleaned crawfish tails
1/2 stick of melted butter
1 cup of chopped sweet onion
1 cup of chopped green bell pepper
1 cup of chopped celery
1 tsp. Seafood Magic
1 tsp. Crab boil
1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
3 tbsp All purpose flour
1 tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 -1 can Cream of Mushroom soup (optional)
1 small soften diced potato (optional)
Marie Callendar deep dish pie crust
Pillsbury pie crust for the top
salt and pepper to taste

Note: If I don’t add the canned soup to the mixture, I replace it with 1/2 to 1 cup of the whipping cream.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

I start out by melting the butter in my big nonstick pan, then adding the celery, onion and green bell pepper. I let that mixture simmer and soften for about 5 minutes then I added my crawfish tails, crab boil, seafood seasoning and Old Bay, and let everything simmer for about 5 minutes. I like to drain off any excess butter, then add my flour, stirring it into the mix. Next, I add my whipping cream and soup and simmer for 5 minutes. Lastly, I mix my corn starch with the water, and I added just a little chicken bouillon to the starch and water before mixing it well and adding to my pie filling mixture and stirring well. The corn starch mixture will help thicken the pie. Once I get it well mixed, I remove the mixture from the heat and pour it into a deep-dish pie crust of your choice. I usually used Marie Callender deep dish pie crusts and use an egg wash to brush on the top crust.

Once I put the top crust on and brush it with egg wash, I bake the pie for about 30 minutes or until the crust is turning brown. I like to serve it with red beans and rice and my southern potato salad. Here’s some pictures I took of the process.