A Cajun Treat: Crawfish Pie

Boy do I have a recipe that's going to knock your socks off.

I'm not even kidding! Crawfish season only comes once a year - and in the South it's a HUGE DEAL. Fortunately you can usually find it frozen in the off-season, unless you're like me and live in The City and have had withdrawals for almost 3 years now!

I'm so serious when I tell you the only thing on my Christmas list last year was that my mom buy frozen crawfish for me the next time she saw it in the store.

And ohhhhh she did.

Best Christmas ever.

My tastebuds have been begging - downright BEGGING - for this Crawfish Pie recipe for months now, and last week I finally broke down, dug out the ol' New Orleans cookbook, and defrosted one of the packages of crawfish tails.

I'm saver, not a spender!

It was soooo worth it. A warm, fluffy crawfish mixture baked into a flaky pie crust -- YIKES I may have to make this again!

If you can get your hands on some crawfish {fresh or frozen}, the rest of the ingredients are really practical and things you probably have on hand already.

The trick is to get a good roux going once you start cooking. It's just a simple mixture of butter and flour over low heat until it's a nice golden brown:

Looks gross and bubbly, right? That's when it's ready! This will be the base of your mixture, and from there you can add in all of your seasonings, veggies, and crawfish!

I can't even begin to describe how this made my night. It doesn't look that pretty, but I guarantee you the taste is amazing. My mouth is watering all over again!

Mmmmm....

MMMMMMMM!!!!

Hope you enjoy this, folks. It's filled with all sorts of Cajun goodness.

Crawfish Pie

Adapted from The New Orleans Cookbook

Serves 2-4

What you'll need:

1 stick butter

1/4 cup flour

2 tsp chopped onion (or onion powder)

2 tsp garlic powder

1/3 cup chopped green pepper

2 tbsp parsley

2-3 stalks of celery, chopped

2 tbsp chopped green onions (optional)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/4 cup heavy cream or half-and-half

1 package frozen crawfish tails (or ~1 lb fresh crawfish)

1 frozen pie shell, thawed

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Tony's, to taste

In a heavy non-stick skillet, melt butter over low heat. Add flour a little at a time, cooking slowly and stirring constantly - DO NOT walk away, as this will burn very easily! Continue stirring until a light golden roux begins to form. Add the onion, garlic, green pepper, parsley, green onions, and celery, then continue stirring until vegetables are soft. Add salt, pepper, cayenne, cream and continue to stir.

Add crawfish tails to the mixture and cook until they are tender, which may take between 12-15 minutes. Pour mixture into pie shell and bake at 350 until crust is a nice golden color and filling is slightly firm.

Allow the pie to cool, but serve HOT and enjoy!