Recipe: Shrimp pot pie with fresh peas, carrots and spring onions
What's below the crust? Shrimp and a delicious collection of fresh vegetables. Debbie Arrington
The first time I had shrimp pie was at an antebellum plantation mansion-turned-B&B on Louisiana’s River Road. The place also served dinner because it was too far away from any restaurants in the middle of nowhere next to the mighty Mississippi. (It was possibly haunted, too.)
There were no menu choices; just a Creole-inspired prix fixe dinner. Before that meal, I had never considered the possibility of a shrimp pie. I couldn’t wait until I got home to California to make one myself.
That was almost 40 years ago, and I have been “playing” with the recipe ever since.
Pot pie is best with spring vegetables such as fresh peas and carrots and mild spring onions. Try not to overcook the shrimp; they can turn tough.
The rich sauce is just enough to keep everything moist underneath that single crust. Use a prepared crust or, if you prefer, one from scratch.
Shrimp pot pie
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
Butter or cooking spray for baking dish
¾ pound large shrimp, cleaned and tails removed
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons butter or more as needed
1 spring onion, chopped
6 button or cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 carrot, sliced into thin coins
1 cup fresh peas, shelled
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup heavy cream
¼ cup milk
1 prepared 9-inch pie crust
Flour
Instructions:
Butter or spray a deep 8-inch casserole dish. Set aside.
In a bowl, sprinkle shrimp with seasoning and lemon juice; stir.
In a large heavy pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add shrimp and sauté briefly on both sides until the shrimp just turns pink, about 2 minutes a side. With a slotted spoon, remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside.
Add more butter to the pan if needed. Add onion and sauté until soft. Add mushrooms and sauté to soften, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add carrots to the mix and sauté another 2 minutes. Add peas and sauté until bright green, about 2 minutes more.
Add thyme and white wine to the pan and simmer until the wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes (or less). Stir in the heavy cream and milk. Cook until sauce thickens slightly. Stir in shrimp and let cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Transfer the shrimp filling into the prepared casserole dish. (Use a deep dish; the filling will bubble.) With floured hands, top the filling with the pie crust. The crust can sit on top of the filling or stretch across the top of the dish. Make several slits in the crust.
Bake in a 400-degree oven until the crust is golden and the filling bubbles around the edges, 30 to 40 minutes. Bake the pie on top of a baking sheet to catch any overflow.
Remove from oven. Let cool 10 to 15 minutes, then serve.
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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 16
Take advantage of this nice weather. There’s plenty to do as your garden starts to switch into high gear for spring growth.
* This is the last chance to spray fruit trees before their buds open. Treat peach and nectarine trees with copper-based fungicide. Spray apricot trees at bud swell to prevent brown rot. Apply horticultural oil to control scale, mites and aphids on fruit trees.
* Check soil moisture before resuming irrigation. Most likely, your soil is still pretty damp.
* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.
* Transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.
* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.
* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).
* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.
* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.
* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.
* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.
* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.
* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.