Crawfish pistolettes.

Soft buns filled with a creamy, tangy cheese sauce, bursting with tender, perfectly cooked crawfish.

Heaven on a plate.

Ever since my drive home from Baton Rouge a few weeks ago, I’ve been obsessed with crawfish pistolletes, a delicacy I’d never eaten before but one that unexpectedly became my top seafood choice.

Leaving Louisiana without picking up a Cajun treat was not an option. Lake Charles, La. is one of the last big cities on I-10 heading to Houston, so the search for last-minute seafood was on.

All my life, my family is a food-driven one. Vacations are remembered for where we ate, not the sights we saw.

Get togethers center around what’s on the menu. There’s always the main course with at least six side dishes. Desserts are a must, even though most of us are trying to watch the fat intake.

My sweet tooth demanded I find a way to cut calories for a favorite dessert, banana pudding.

The old-fashioned way to make this dessert is with vanilla pudding, sweetened condensed milk, bananas and cookies.

I streamlined the recipe to using sugar-free instant pudding with skim milk, lots of bananas, low-fat Cool Whip and low-fat vanilla wafers.

Maybe not the full bang for the buck, but close enough.

Back to the pistolettes.

I’d never heard of this Cajun delicacy until that trip out of Louisiana in May. I stopped at a restaurant near the state line and went inside

The lady at the counter noticed I was taking a long time to make a decision. I told her I wanted a small snack, something to tide me over until I got home.

“What’s your favorite seafood?” she asked.

Instantly, I replied crawfish.

“A crawfish pistolette is perfect for you,” she said.

She described the appetizer as a white-bread bun with crawfish filling. Sounded basic so I ordered one to go.

I didn’t open the bag until I’d crossed the state line. One bite in, and I instantly regretted not ordering a dozen of those babies.

The cheese was hot, creamy and smooth. The crawfish were plump and had the right amount of Cajun seasonings. The bread was the perfect vehicle for that filling. To say I was hooked was an understatement.

After I got home, I searched for restaurants near my home for pistolettes.

Nothing.

I expanded the search to the greater Houston area.

Nothing again.

So I went online to find the recipe. I’m not a good cook. In fact, if there’s more than five ingredients, it’s off my list. But these pistolettes are worth the trouble.

The closest recipe called for lots of real butter, evaporated milk and processed cheese.

I didn’t mind that the recipe needed cooked and peeled whole crawfish tails. Those are for sale in the frozen section of every grocery store I visit.

Before I headed to the grocery market, I had a revelation.

I was going to Baton Rouge in July and could buy some pistolettes already cooked. The problem was I couldn’t remember the exit or the name of the restaurant where I got them.

I looked up crawfish pistolettes around Lake Charles and hit the jackpot – The Boiling Point.

My grandson and I pulled into the empty parking lot on our way back and my heart sank.

The sign on the door stated they were closed.

I found two more seafood restaurants in the area that advertised pistolettes.

The first one was boarded up. The second one was also closed.

This must be a sign that the fat-ladened, totally delicious crawfish pistolettes are not for me.

I think I’ll take another look at that recipe and see if I can low-fat that one. Then it’s look out, cher, this Cajun girl is hauling out the cast-iron pots.

 

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.