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Petite Crawfish Pies

Source of Recipe

From "Southern Snacks" by Perre Coleman Magness


Recipe Introduction

"I have experienced two versions of crawfish pie. My brother used to bring back a cooler full of crawfish pies from Louisiana business trips that were half-moon-shaped fried pies with a simple crawfish filling. But they are sometimes a little more pastry than crawfish. And many community cookbooks from Louisiana have recipes for a full pie—double crust with a creamy filling, sort of a crawfish pot pie. Not easy to eat as a snack. So, with a little ingenuity, I have combined the two, et voilà, Petite Crawfish Pies. Bite-size with a good pastry-to-filling ratio and an easy snack to serve and eat."

List of Ingredients

For the crust:
â—¦ 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
â—¦ 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
â—¦ 2 cups all-purpose flour
â—¦ ½ teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:
â—¦ 3 green onions, white and light green parts
â—¦ 2 celery stalks
â—¦ 1 green bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed
â—¦ ½ medium yellow onion
â—¦ 2 cloves garlic
â—¦ ¼ cup olive oil
â—¦ 12 ounces frozen crawfish tails, thawed, rinsed, and drained
â—¦ ½ cup plain dry bread crumbs
â—¦ Kosher salt, to taste
â—¦ Creole seasoning (such as Tony Chachere's)


Recipe

For the crust, beat the butter and the cream cheese together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in the flour and the salt until the dough comes together in a ball. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Knead the dough a few times to bring it all together, then gather it into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

For the filling, cut the green onions, celery, green peppers, and onions into chunks and place them in the bowl of a food processor. Add the garlic and pulse a number of times until you have a rough purée. You do not want a paste or to grind out a lot of liquid; the vegetables should be finely chopped but dry. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat, then add the vegetables and cook until they are pale and soft. Pulse the crawfish tails in the food processor—again you want them finely chopped, not paste.

Add the crawfish to the skillet with the vegetables and stir to combine. Use a fork if needed to separate any clumps of vegetables or crawfish and to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Cook until the mixture is heated through, then add ½ cup water and cook until the liquid is almost completely evaporated, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the bread crumbs until they are evenly distributed and the filling is cohesive. Taste, and season with salt as needed. Leave to cool.

To assemble, lightly brush the inside of 36 mini-muffin cups with oil. Take the dough from the refrigerator and break off walnut-sized balls. Place a ball in each muffin cup and use your thumbs or the back of a measuring teaspoon to press the dough up the sides of the muffin cups, forming little cases for the filling. Fill each pastry case with the crawfish, filling completely to the top. Sprinkle the tops of each pie with a dash of Creole seasoning.

Bake the pies for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops and the sides of the pies are golden and a little crisp. Serve warm. The unbaked pies can be made up to a day ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. You will have some filling left over. Mix it with a little cream and serve with pasta, or blend it with a little cream cheese and spread on crackers.

Makes 36