Crawfish sourdough pizza

This month’s recipe is a bit unusual, with crawfish creole as a pizza topping, on a pizza crust made from sourdourgh bread starter. I haven’t met many people that don’t like pizza and sourdough bread.

However, a few misguided souls don’t care for crawfish. Meatloaf let us know so eloquently in his song, “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad,” so we’ll move forward with this, and those folks that don’t care for crawfish can make the creole sauce using shrimp. This isn’t quite as tasty using shrimp instead of mud bugs, but it ain’t bad either!

This recipe came from being hungry, having some crawfish creole in the fridge, and my wife having some sourdough starter she needed to do something with. I’m always game for trying things that sound interesting, and this was one of those. I like crawfish and I like sourdough bread, so once the idea of using crawfish on a sourdough pizza crust was offered, there was no turning back. By using crawfish creole, I had peppers and more for the pizza built in.

I encourage you to try this, even if you have reservations. This recipe has a few more steps and more detail than most of the recipes that grace this page, but this is a good one, and it’s well worth the little extra effort. It’s much easier to cook this inside, which gives a good reason to be in the AC, rather than outdoors on a hot, muggy September evening.

Crawfish sourdough pizza

Sportsmen in the Carolinas will be branching out during September. Fishing continues to be good and getting better from the tallest Blue Ridge peaks to the break at the edge of the Continental Shelf, and several hunting seasons will open during the month. Unfortunately, neither of those activities will provide the main ingredient for this. Many folks in the Carolinas don’t have access to crawfish, so acquiring the main ingredient for this recipe will require a trip to your favorite fish monger or a local crawfish farm. Don’t fret though. Once you taste it, the extra effort will be worthwhile.

INGREDIENTS:

CRUST:

1 1/2 Cups sourdough bread starter

2 TBL olive oil

Garlic power (to taste)

Italian seasoning (to taste)

CRAWFISH CREOLE:

12 Ounces cooked crawfish tails

3 Pieces of bacon

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 Sweet onion

2/3 Cup
chopped bell pepper

1 Jalapeno pepper

2 Stalks celery

1/2 TBL minced garlic

2 TSP Italian seasoning

1 Bay leaf

1 TBL lemon juice

1/2 TBL Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning

1 TBL vegetable oil

1 TBL flour

1 Packet or TSP Splenda

Salt and pepper to taste

PIZZA:

Pizza crust

Crawfish creole

Pizza sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

PREPARATION:

Crust:

1. Stir the spices and oil well into the starter.
2. Preheat a cast iron frying pan(s) (or other oven safe pans) for 5-10 minutes at 425.
3. Remove pan(s) from oven and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Pour half of the starter mix into each of 2 pans (thin crust) or all into one pan for a thicker crust.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes until it begins getting stiff and crusting. Watch this closely to prevent scorching the crust.

Crawfish Creole:

1. Chop the onion, peppers and celery.
2. Cook the bacon in a large pan and remove the bacon, leaving the grease. (I use a deep cast iron pan.)
3. Add the vegetable oil and allow it to heat.
4. Stir in the onion, peppers, celery and garlic and continue to stir occasionally until the vegetables soften.
5. Crumble the bacon.
6. Drain the tomatoes, but save their juice.
7. Add 1/4 cup of tomato juice to the vegetables and heat.
8. Briskly stir in 1 tablespoon of flour. (Do not turn away while doing this or you may scorch the roux.)
9. Add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, crumbled bacon, Tony Chachere’s seasoning, Splenda and bay leaf and cook over medium heat a few minutes until the tomatoes have broken down. Stir occasionally. If this gets too dry, add a little more tomato juice.
10. Taste and add salt or pepper if needed.
11. Add the crawfish tails and half the lemon juice to the creole mix and continue cooking for a couple of minutes, stirring until the crawfish tails are warm and mixed well.
12. Remove from heat, stir well and taste. Make any final taste adjustments with salt and pepper, Tony Chachere’s seasoning and/or lemon juice. Stir well and cover.

Pizza:

1. Spread pizza sauce lightly across the top of the sourdough pizza crust(s) and sprinkle lightly with cheese.
2. Top the pizza crust(s) with crawfish creole.
3. Add another layer of shredded cheese on top of the crawfish creole.
4. Put this back in the oven for a couple of minutes while the cheese melts. Be careful not to scorch the cheese.
5. Remove the pizza(s) from oven and allow them to cool just a minute or two.
6. Move the pizza(s) to a cutting board and use a pizza cutter to cut slices.
7. Serve before the pizza cools.

This is a pretty complete meal. Folks who would like something sweet to cap this off, should consider some ice cream made with fresh fruit.