Okay.  It’s not exactly pot pie weather outside, but I was feeling slightly brain-dead.  Besides…  It’s not your typical pot pie.

The idea was always shrimp and andouille.  I just wasn’t sure exactly how they were going to go together.  I first thought a kind of jambalaya – really simple – and even toyed with the idea of a fritatta of sorts.  But when I got home, I found we were down to one ripe tomato. I didn’t want to use canned, so…

Time to change gears.

I remembered a recipe I had seen in Bon Appetit a while back and came up with a variation on a theme.

I had picked up the puff pastry during my weekly shopping trek and there was a tad of heavy cream left from making ice cream and two pasta dishes.

Shrimp and Andouille Pot Pie

  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 leeks, chopped
  • 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 link andouille sausage, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/3 cup white wine
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 cup cubed red bliss potatoes
  • 1/2 pound shrimp
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°. Cut out pastry rounds to fit bowls. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake about 15 minutes, or until golden.

Whisk cream and flour in small bowl. Heat skillet and add a drizzle of olive oil. Sauté leeks, celery, and bell pepper until tender, about 10 minutes. Add andouille and garlic and sauté until sausage colors.

Add wine and simmer until liquid evaporates. Add chicken stock and and thyme. Bring to simmer. Add potato and cook uncovered until tender.

Add cream mixture to skillet; stir. Simmer until sauce thickens and boils, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat. Add shrimp; simmer about 3 minutes.

Add salt and pepper, to taste

Divide hot filling among oven-proof bowls. Top each with pastry round. Bake until filling bubbles, about 10 minutes.

This was really good.  Creamy, slightly spicy, the puff pastry made a crumbly mess all over the place when we started eating…  Perfectly fun food!

Doing to pastry topping in the oven first really helps to keep it flaky on top of the pot pie.  No doughy-gooey unbaked pastry to deal with.

I can see several more variations on a theme as the weather turns…..