Chef Hunter Lee
Let’s get shakin’!
So it goes without saying some of the best food (if not the best) comes from Louisiana. Argue that if you want but I wouldn’t argue it with a Louisianian
This next recipe is one of my absolute favorites. You will find as many variations of it as you will cultures in the bayou state. I’ve made several variations of it over the years for everything from weddings to family get togethers. To be honest I had never really heard of crawfish pies till I lived and worked in south Louisiana. Now meat pies, that’s a different story. Meat pies originated in Natchitoches Louisiana, about 40 miles from where I grew up and are as we all know “world famous” now. I love meat pies but I gotta tell you these crawfish pies just take it to the next level and are pretty easy to make. Below is the recipe and my only suggestion is to double the recipe, I didn’t the first time I made them and that was the only bad thing about them.
Classic Louisiana Crawfish Hand Pies
INGREDIENTS
- Crawfish Filling
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 1 cup diced yellow onion
- ½ cup diced green onion tops
- 2 tablespoons diced green bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons diced celery
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup seafood stock
- 1 pound Louisiana crawfish tail meat
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon Benwood’s Surely Southern Seasoning (or Cajun Seasoning of your choice.
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Dash of Benwood’s Surely Southern Hot Sauce (or hot sauce of your choice (not Tabasco)
- Hand Pies
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 package (2 sheets) Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry sheets, thawed to room temperature
- 1 large egg, beaten
- Kosher salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Crawfish Filling
- In a large cast-iron pot or skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the yellow onions, green onions, bell pepper, and celery, and sauté until the yellow onions turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, lower the heat to simmer, and stir to combine. Sprinkle ½ cup of the flour over the mixture, stir to incorporate, and cook the flour until it turns light brown, about 10 minutes. Add the stock, and stir until you reach a stew-like thickness.
- Add the crawfish tail meat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the paprika, Benwood’s seasoning and season to taste with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. At this point, you want to thicken the mixture until it achieves the texture of a filling or stuffing by gradually stirring in the remaining flour. Bring the mixture back to a simmer and turn off the heat. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Hand Pies
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
- On a large countertop surface (granite or marble works well), sprinkle lightly with bench flour. Unwrap and lay out one of the puff pastry sheets. Unfold and sprinkle with more of the flour. Using a rolling pin, roll until it spreads out and expands to a thickness of ¼ inch. Using a 5-inch-diameter circle as a guide, cut around the dough with a sharp knife. You should get 4 of these circles out of one sheet of dough. Do the same with the second dough sheet.
- Using a one-tablespoon measuring cup, add about 2 tablespoons of the crawfish filling to the center of a circle. Brush along the edge of the inside of the dough and fold over the dough to form a half-moon shape. Using the tines of a fork (or a pastry wheel), crimp the edges tightly to seal in the filling. Place the hand pie on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Repeat with all the pies.
- At this point, you can refrigerate the pies until ready to bake. Just before baking, brush the top of the dough with egg wash and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake in the oven until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Serve in a basket as an appetizer or two of the hand pies as an entrée along with a side salad.
Until next week, I’m Chef Hunter Lee
Remember, “treat your kitchen, treat yourself”!!