Ghanaian Savory Homemade Fried Pies (Seafood Stuffed)

For mother’s day this year, I decided to do something interesting. I am throwing a pie themed virtual brunch with my friend Chichi over at My Diaspora Kitchen. She will be preparing an interesting twist on Nigerian meat pies, while I am making these seafood fried pies. Savory fried pies are a common street food sold in Ghana. They can be filled with a number of things; I have seen beef, chicken, fish and even noodle stuffed fried pies. Since it is for my mother’s day brunch, I wanted to elevate these delicious, handy, savory homemade fried pies by stuffing them with crawfish and crabs, but feel free to get creative with your stuffings!

As you may know, I live close to the coasts of Baltimore, and we have an abundance of blue crabs and crawfish around me. As such, it was a no brainer to include them in my pies. To make these pies though, all you would need is frozen crawfish meat and crab meat, so you do not have to have them fresh to make them. Don’t forget to check out the fancy looking version of spicy Nigerian meat pies that my friend made over at My Diaspora Kitchen.

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Ghanaian Savory Homemade Fried Pies (Seafood Stuffed)

Savory Fried pies are a common street food sold in Ghana that are usually stuffed with a variety of fillings with options including beef, chicken, fish and even noodles! For mother's day brunch, I elevated these delicious handy savory homemade fried pies to tasty new heights by stuffing them with crawfish and crabs!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Ghanaian, West African

Servings: 12

Calories: 181kcal

Ingredients

Pie Filling

• ½ lb crawfish meat (fresh or frozen)
• ½ lb crab meat
• ½ large onion (chopped)
• 1 green bell pepper (chopped)
• 2 jalapeno peppers (chopped)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp flour
• celery salt (to taste)

Pie Dough

• 305 grams all purpose flour (about 2 cups)
• 3 tbsp softened unsalted butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt

Instructions

Making the Pie filling

• In a wide saucepan, on low -medium heat, sauté the onions, bell pepper and jalapeno peppers in the coconut oil till the onions turn translucent and the peppers soften.
• Add in the 2 tbsps of flour and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes until the color of the flour turns light brown
• Add the crawfish and crab meat in the pan with 3 tbsp of water and allow to cook for another 10 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with celery salt if necessary, take of the heat and allow to cool completely before stuffing the pie dough.

Making the pie dough

• While the pie mixture is cooling, in a bowl, combine the 305g flour, baking powder sugar and salt.
• Rub the butter in with the flour mixture and gradually add in water a little at a time, kneading after each addition until a soft pliable dough is formed. The dough should not be too hard or too sticky.
• Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes before using

Making the Pies

• Cut the rested dough into 12 even pieces. Taking one piece of dough at a time, roll it out into a circle and place about 2 tablespoons of the filling on half the dough circle. Use the other half to cover the filling and seal the edges of the dough by crimping with a fork. To ensure a secure seal, brush the edges of the dough circle with water before close and sealing.
• In a pan or fryer heat up enough oil (to 350 degrees Fahrenheit) to fry the pies.
  
• Place the pies in the hot oil gently (do not over crowd the fry pan or fryer), and fry each pie until it is golden brown on each side.
• Drain the fried pies and allow them to cool for at least 5 minutes before frying. 

Let me know how you like  my homemade fried pies by sounding off in the comments below, rate and leave a review! I love hearing from you, answering your questions and reading your feedback.