Kaitlyn Comeaux: Baking up crawfish pies for Christmas

Published 7:44 am Wednesday, December 22, 2021

While some home cooks are planning holiday dinners that include the customary pecan or sweet potato pie for dessert, Kaitlyn Comeaux is concentrating on crafting a savory pie, and it’s going like hotcakes.

“I don’t know if crawfish pies are a tradition around the holidays for families around here, but they have been in my family ever since I can remember,” Comeaux said. “We’re seafood fanatics.”

She’s talking about a nine-inch crawfish pie, not the hand-held half-moon type. Her pie holds almost a pound of local crawfish, not the stuff from China. While she cooks, she’ll be listening to Zydeco and classic country, so yeah, there’s a possibility that the country classic station will play a little Hank singing about Comeaux’s culinary favorite.

“It’s a recipe I adapted from one of my grandmother always used,” Comeaux said. “After making it and experimenting, I settled on seasoning it a little differently than she did, and I start with a darker roux, a roux that takes more time.”

Comeaux lives in Sulphur and hails from Crowley. She describes the filling as shrimp etouffee without the rice, and has turned the crust over to her girlfriend Kaylyn Lugo. All crusts use oil, butter, margarine, lard or shortening. This is a buttery crust.

“The only thing I know about my grandmother is she had eight children and she made sure all of them got her recipes,” Comeaux said.

Friends who were lucky enough to get a slice of Comeaux’s crawfish pie convinced her people would pay for one. She’ll be making 40 in the next couple of days, and all have sold.  That’s during time off from her full-time job as a phone tech.

“People keep telling me I need to charge more than $25,” she said.

For Comeaux, it’s a labor of love and not the only tasty savory treat in which she specializes.

“I make a lot of beef jerky and I’m good at roast, rice and gravy, ‘’ she said. “I make cooking it an all-day affair.”