Shrimp Etoufee In A Pie!

This was an adaptation of a basic etoufee but served as one dish (not over rice) and in a pie dish. Looked like a pie, served like rice. Easy to make ahead and reheat or to take to someone's house. Spicey enough for New Orleaneans but didn't exclude others. Here's how it went:

Serves 4 generously or 6 with more normal portions. 9 in. diam. pie pan; 2 in. deep

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c uncooked short grain glutinous rice . (Regular or brown rice would work but the glutoun makes it wonderfully saucy and it serves well)


• 2 med onions, chopped


• 1 bell pepper, diced


• 2 stalks celery, diced


• 5 cl.garlic, minced


• 4 T salted butter + some to butter tin


• 1 T salt 1/4 t cayanne pepper


• 2 t dried thyme + some for sprinkling


• 1 lb. small peeled shrimp (I used cooked shrimp because I had it, but uncooked would be better. Small is important.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350.

1. Cook rice in 3 c water. Boil, reduce to simmer for 25 min. Turn off heat and let sit.


2. Melt butter in large skillet (I use 14 in.) over med heat. Add flour a little at a time, constantly stirring/scraping with flat end of a spatula. Continue scraping over med to low heat for 10-15 min, or until roux forms with a cherry wood or almond color. Med brown roux.


3. Add garlic and heat through. Quickly add onions, bell pepper, and celery before roux gets too dark. Add salt, cayanne pepper, and thyme. Stir through and keep it moving over med to high heat until onions are soft--about five minutes.


4. Reduce heat to low and let cook another five minutes, stirring occasionally.


5. Add shrimp (except for about 20 that you reserve for garnish) and combine, heating though on med heat. (If using raw shrimp, push onion mixture to sides of pan, crank heat to high, add a little oil or butter or oil in center, add shrimp and toss it over the heat for one or two minutes until coooked through, then combine.)


6. Over low heat, add all of the rice, about a cup at a time, combining until evenly mixed. Add 1/4 c vegetable stock to deglaze pan if sticking.


7. Butter the pie pan, then transfer rice-etoufee mixture to pan a few spoons at at time, packing it in as much as you can. It will fill and slightly heap the pan.


8. Garnish with a ring of shrimp around the perimiter and a pinwheel in the center. Sprinkle with crushed thyme.


9. Bake in 350 oven for 30 min.

Variations and changes: Could try not putting any stock in to make it dryer. I thought the whole thing might set, but it got softer, not firmer, in the oven. A long slow cook time might make a more "cakey" etoufee pie, but this was so delicious, it might not be a good idea to mess with it.