Crawfish Pie

In The Carpenters' 1973 cover of this ballad, Karen’s voice glides over 'jambalaya', 'crawfish pie' and 'filé gumbo'.

Preparation time :	20 minutes
Cooking time :	35 minutes
Total time :	55 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients

100g salted butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
Tabasco sauce, to taste
1 large tomato, finely chopped
500g langoustines, uncooked tiger prawns or crawfish tails, peeled
2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp plain flour, sifted
375g ready-rolled puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the onion, red pepper and celery. Season and shake in some Tabasco. Cook the mixture for around 6 minutes until soft. Add the tomato, seafood and parsley; cook for 4 minutes, stirring.
2. Whisk the flour into 2 tbsp water and add to the pan with 200ml water. Stir for 2 minutes until thickened; cool. Use half the pastry to line a 22.5cm pie dish. Spoon in the cooled mixture and brush the pastry edge with the egg. Use the remaining pastry to make a lid; crimp the edges together. Brush with egg. Bake for 35 minutes.

Drinks recommendation

Try a Californian chardonnay with the pie.