Crawfish Pie
I don't really like crawfish pie the way it's usually made--as a thickened crawfish etouffee baked in a little pie shell. This version is a bit richer, more herbal (with an up-front garlic tinge), and less red-peppery. It's also folded into a triangle of phyllo pastry, and comes out looking like a Middle Eastern spinach pie. That eliminates the worst part of the standard crawfish pie--the fat-logged crust. You can also make these using small vol-au-vents ("patty shells"). Resist the temptation to add cheese of any kind. The crawfish season is just beginning, but the kind of crawfish used for this dish (pre-picked crawfish tails) have become easy to find in the markets. [caption id="attachment_44854" align="alignright" width="480"]
Crawfish pie in vol-au-vent pastry (also known as patty shells.)[/caption]
- 2 cups Louisiana crawfish tails
- 1/2 stick butter
- 4 Tbs. flour
- 1 tsp. fresh, finely chopped garlic
- 3/4 cup half-and-half, warmed
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 4 slices bacon, fried crisp, drained, then crumbled
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 10 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, chopped
- 1/2 tsp. dill
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. cayenne
- 1 tsp. paprika
- Phyllo pastry sheets
1. If the crawfish tails are very large, cut them into two or three pieces.
2. Heat the butter over medium heat in a saucepan until it bubbles, then stir in the flour and make a blond roux. Don't allow the roux to brown.
3. Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Lower the heat to the lowest setting and add the warmed half-and-half. Whisk until the sauce thickens to the texture of light mashed potatoes. Add half of the beaten egg and whisk until blended in.
4. Add add the crawfish and all the other ingredients except the phyllo and the remaining beaten egg. Simmer, stirring once or twice, for about two minutes. Remove from the heat.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
5. Unfold the phyllo pastry and separate ten sheets. Wrap the remainder and return to the box and the refrigerator. Cut the phyllo sheets into three strips, four to five inches wide and twelve to fourteen inches long. Dampen a clean towel and keep it on top of the phyllo you're not yet using to prevent its drying out.
6. Spoon about two tablespoons of the crawfish mixture onto one end of two thicknesses of phyllo strips. Brush lightly with egg at the other end. Fold the phyllo over the filling at a 45-degree angle, and keep folding over till the end. Seal the edges with your fingers. Set the finished triangles on a greased baking sheet and continue making more until all the filling is gone.
7. Bake the triangles in a 400-degree oven until browned and crisp. Serve immediately, or keep warm for an hour or less.
Serves eight to twelve.
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Wednesday, January 17, 2018. I awakened five times through the Wednesday-Thursday night. The temperature was predicted to get down to the low teens. In the twenty-nine years we've lived at the Cool Water Ranch, we've never had a broken water pipe. I do have insulation an almost every inch of the system, but the temps have only rarely have gone down this far.
I made the rounds of the faucets and facilities around the house every few hours. One pipe ends in a thin stream of water coming out of a brass faucet. Or it should have. The faucet involved was now frozen. When I poured some hot water over it, it came back to life with very little force.
Later in the day, I saw that one of the toilets had stop refilling after flushing. I couldn't get at it with hot water, but after a half-hour or so, it started working at full capacity again. And that would be the only problem I would observe.
But I regret is not having installed the skirts I used to hang around the crawl space. Having those keeps the underside of the house much warmer. Hanging the skirts was something son Jude used to do at the beginning of the cold-weather seasons. But he has his own family and problems to take care of now. In more treacherous situations: his house in Los Angeles is not an unimaginable distance from the forest fires that set records this year.
We cooked up a dinner of miscellaneous refrigerator food. MA made another sizzling broiled oyster-and-garlic appetizer. She broiled some Italian sausages that came our way some months. ago. Tasty. The three of us (the Marys and I) had an enjoyable evening in the kitchen.
The word from the restaurant world is that there was so much ice on the roads that most eateries were closed for the day. Their employees were having a rough time getting to the job. The Marys went out on an errand and came back saying that the roads were scary. Which is something for bold MA to say. The Causeway has been closed since late yesterday.
The radio station once again shut down for most of the day, although I have the capability for doing my show from home, and I did. I offered to inform the public of restaurants that were open today, and hoped that those calls would be enough to build listening to a conversation upon. Not so. The people who might have been on the way home on a normal night were not listening to their car radios.
It got even colder and persisted longer today than yesterday. But all my precautions held, and I was able to sleep better.
Thursday, January 18, 2018. Defeating Cold Weather, Mostly.
The Causeway was open almost the entire day, and things were returning to normal from Abita Springs to downtown New Orleans. And I was more than ready for that. Having dined in restaurants every day for many years, I feel trapped, out of place, deprived, and otherwise helpless. I ate only my spartan breakfast as usual, then nothing until dinnertime.
By that time, we had a reservation at Keith Young's Steak House. Today is the thirteenth anniversary of Keith and Linda's opening of the restaurant, which has become one of the two or three best and most successful restaurants on the North Shore. MA loves Keith and his restaurant, and so do I. We begin with oysters Bienville for two, an assortment of sides served as appetizers, and one fourteen-ounce (that would almost be a Chateaubriand) filet in sizzling butter. We observe that we are not the only ones who wanted to leave our homes after the previous four days. Even if that meant going out into sixteen-degree surroundings.
Back at home, I see that the forecast is for continuously freezing temps until well into Friday. (The thermometer at home says eleven degrees.) But there has been no more wintry mix or other ice on the the roads since the batch three nights ago. And thank goodness. The deck outside our kitchen is covered with almost enough ice to go ice skating. And I feel it necessary to check the faucets four times during the night. No problems.
Keith Young's Steak House. Madisonville: 165 LA 21. 985-845-9940.
