Aloha Friday: Recipe for Always-a-Winner Mirliton Pie (Chayote Gourd-Squash Pie)

I grow chayote, also called mirliton in Louisiana. Other names for this gourd-squash include pipinola (Hawaiian), sayote (Ilocano-Filipino), and choko (Australia and New Zealand). It is prolific. When it fruits (two or three times a year in tropical, no-winter-to-speak-of Hawaii) it produces 75 to a 100 yummy chayote each time.

More information on chayote: http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/08/06/features/the-urban-gardener/chayote-proves-simple-to-propogate/

Awash and drowning in each new crop (of 75-100, two or three times a year, yes, prolific) keeps me busy harvesting, gifting away, cooking, pickling, and baking it into mirliton pie, a dessert indigenous to Louisiana.

Here's the recipe I use for making mirliton pie. Imagine a bread pudding with substance and character: that's what mirliton pie tastes like. It's yummy.

You might be able to find chayotes in Louisiana, Texas, and other places near Mexico. They're probably hard, if not impossible, to find in most parts of the US.

Mirliton Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

3 chayotes/mirlitons, (seed removed) cooked, peeled, mashed, drained
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup Bisquick
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup pecan pieces

Method:

Prepare a 9 inch pie pan by greasing with shortening or butter. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the mashed chayote/mirliton in a strainer to lose about 7 ounces of liquid from the mirliton pulp. Place stainer over a bowl to catch the liquid. Beat together softened butter and sugar until light and creamy. By hand, mix in Bisquick, mirliton pulp and eggs. Add cinnamon, vanilla and pecan pieces, and mix.
Pour into prepared pie pan and bake for 50-55 minutes, until the pie is a dark golden brown on top and bottom. Pie is ready when a knife inserted into the center comes out relatively clean. Serve hot or cold, plain, or with whipped cream or ice cream.