Oh my! Weird Pies!!

I made an excellent weird pie! Have you made any weird ones? Do tell!

This was inspired by someone saying she had made avocado mousse, and a package of frozen avocado pulp from one of the scratch and dent stores we shop at. We also just got a bunch of excellent flaked coconut, my mom expressed a desire for coconut cream pie. And me, I always want weird things we have never had before :)

Most of the recipes on this site were non-impressive, adding 1/2 an avocado to a cake doesn't make it an avocado cake, to me. This one sort of attracted my eye:  Avocado and Lime Tart and at the scatch and dent store I had also, for silly reasons, picked up a bottle of organic margarita mix, which is basically lime juice and sugar. I also have on hand my usual stock of frozen stuff, and basics... so I made this!



Came out fantastic! 10 out of 10 on this one...
Recipe (such as it is, I don't measure anything)

Crust: 1 chunk un-frozen cooked pumpkin, chopped peanuts, a bit of sugar, not a lot of whole wheat flour, one brown egg. Mixed till totally pureed, patted and shaped into a glass pie pan that had been greased and floured. Baked at 325 until it barely started to brown.

Filling: avocado, gelatin and chia to set it, margarita mix to taste, needed a bit of back flavor changed so I added about 1 ounce cream cheese. Put into cooled crust, in the fridge to set up.

Topping: Made at the same time as the filling, cooled in it's own bowl until the next day. Coconut milk, flaked coconut, honey, gelatin and cornstarch to set it, vanilla. Cooked as a pudding, when boiled, left to cool in the fridge overnight. The next day I beat it till it was semi-fluffy, then carefully put it on top of the avocado filling (which set, but not real solid) I couldn't use a knife to spread the topping, had to drop it by spoonfuls all over it, then wet my hands and pat the lumps together.

So what it tastes like is a graham cracker crust, with creamy lime pie filling, and coconut cream pie topping!

OH MY! Avocado Lime Pie!!   10 out of 10, I'll do this again. We LOVE it!

Have you made any weird pies?

good lord Pearl, you amaze me...from solar air heaters all the way to weird pies (with a good taste)   ....hope you had a good T day!

My grandmother made a pumpkin pie and somehow forgot to put the pumpkin in. When it came out of the oven she looked on the counter and realized that it was too late. So she got something, I think it was either custard or lemon meringue, but she poured something into it, and then cut it up and said we're having, whatever it was pie. Grandma wasn't one to get embarrassed about cooking errors, she simply switched gears and made it into something that we would eat. And it gave her a story, which she must have told a hundred times.
.......
When my brother Robin was three , my mother made a pie with a very tough crust. He asked if he had to eat the cardboard. Years later my mother sent this in to Readers Digest. They had a section called things children say. They printed it and she received $150. She immediately called everybody to crow about her good fortune and the fact that she had received $150 for a pie she cooked in 1969.

Orin Raichart wrote:good lord Pearl, you amaze me...from solar air heaters all the way to weird pies (with a good taste)   ....hope you had a good T day!

Thank you :) I don't do anything normally, so most of what I do is startling :D To quote my profile "and it only gets weirder...."  

I did have a good T day, worked a free dinner the local Habitat for Humanity puts on. Over 550 people fed! YAY!!
Did you have a good T day? Make any fun food? I always like weird ideas
:D

Your crust sounds really good! I can't imagine sweet avocado at the moment, so I'll take your word on the rest of it ;)

I wish I had a weird pie to tell you about, but mine's only slightly unusual...and it's not pie.

After I've cooked my squash, I sometimes discover it's not really tasty enough to just eat as is. So I make pumpkin pudding, basically pumpkin pie filling. I have no oven anymore, and am too lazy to make pie nowadays anyway :D

For every kilo of cooked squash I add about 100g of dates and 35g of tahini. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to taste.  Some ground flaxseed if it's a wet squash. Blend it all up in a food processor and let cool until it sets up a bit.

I'm mainly just trying to find a way to get through a lot of inferior squash, not make a dessert. So heavy on the spices and just enough sweetness and creaminess that my brain thinks "pumpkin pie" instead of "yakky squash."

Hah Pearl - I think our kitchens must be separated at birth.  That avocado pie sounds delicious!

The one time I tried an avocado pudding, it was made in a commercial kitchen for an event, and had a weird off-tasting (spoiled) outside, but was tasty in the middle. So more excuses to eat your pie fast.

My friends have gotten to the point where none of them ask what's in X that I made until they've eaten it - and good friends know better than to ask for a recipe, because there isn't one. They just eat it. There's usually a vegetable at minimum hidden in there. A couple times, I've bragged to a friend that I've actually managed to follow a recipe "I just converted it to gluten free flour, added in guar gum, added an extra egg, substituted x for y, plus one or two other changes.." They point out that doesn't count as following the recipe :). Still, when we get together, they always want me to cook so I must be doing something right.

My weirdest pie was an attempt to make a lemon tofu cheesecake on short notice. I wasn't a fan, but the dairy free almost-vegetarian I made it for went back for thirds.  Not weird (to me), is carrot pie. Cooked carrots, blended, then made into a pumpkin-type pie. When I feed it to people, they never guess I skipped the pumpkin. I always use fresh ginger in my pumpkin/carrot pies for that extra zing every few bites. Leftover squash gets frozen and used for baking in my house. I tend to throw in a lb of squash to pretty much anything I bake to improve texture and moisture.

Catie George: You may be right! One of my sisters asked me once "Are you constitutionally able to follow a recipe?" I suppose I could, but why would I want to do that? :) That conversation was inspired by her demanding the recipe for something I had made, she was standing there with a pen, so I started saying "1/3 cup of this, 1/2 cup that.." at some point she realized I was just making a good guess of what amounts I had used. :D  This is the woman who sends me text of recipes "I'm gonna try this one!" Simple recipes. One was cucumbers with sesame oil, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, and salt... You need a RECIPE for that? Well you HAVE to use 1T seeds, I guess. Bzzzt. Nope.

At a party I heard a friend's kid, who had been eating things I brought to parties his whole life, (he was about 17 at this point) tell a friend he had brought to the party, when asked what he was piling on his plate "I Don't know, but it's in Pearl''s dishes!"  "which means what?" He thought for a sec, "It means it's vegetarian, it's full of nutrition, it's nothing you have ever had, it's weird, and it will be excellent!" His friend tried one, then started piling his plate deep too! It was mashed potatoes, spiced with Indian spices, rolled into balls, dipped in spiced tempura batter and deep fried. Those were VERY popular.

Would be fun for you and I to cook together!!

:D

Pearl - Yes, that would be fun! And those fried mashed potato balls sound amazing. I've never understood people who say they can't cook good vegetarian food, or gluten free food, or dairy free, or vegan food, or XXXX. Good food is good food, and working within constraints just brings out the creativity.

I have one friend who is like your sister and needs a recipe to make a stirfry or any other sweet or savoury dish - even a salad! I'm so confused. A stirfry is what happens when you have a bunch of veggies in the fridge you need to use up- how do you predict what veggies need using up in order to make a "recipe"? I've started to say - no, I don't have recipe for that, I have a "concept", which may be as vague as "veggies + oil + spices/seasonings + eggs/tofu/meat/beans = stirfry".

I used to try very valiantly to follow recipes for new dishes, but then i'd get to the end and have to do a bunch of last minute additions because it tasted boring. So, might as well cook it right from the beginning! I do, more or less, usually follow my own recipes.  I made myself the same pumpkin-based chocolate muffins as breakfast for 6 months, and eventually standardized a recipe as I worked to figure out the lowest possible amount of sugar + fat+ flour to pumpkin/applesauce +egg I could make work. I called them my "healthy-ish chocolate muffins".

Catie George: Have you seen the threads I started here named "concept cooking" then whatever? I don't recall how many I wrote vs how many I plan to write. at least 2 are in the cooking section.

Still getting work done tonight, tomorrow is a long day, lag till tomorrow PM....

Pearl Sutton wrote:Catie George: Have you seen the threads I started here named "concept cooking" then whatever? I don't recall how many I wrote vs how many I plan to write. at least 2 are in the cooking section.

Still getting work done tonight, tomorrow is a long day, lag till tomorrow PM....

Very interesting - I hadn't seen those ! I love how different people's "concept cooking" changes based on the cuisine you are accustomed to.  Most of my concept cooking is Central European or "Canadian farm cooking" inspired. Occasionally also Asian (thai/chinese/indian). Yours seems to be more Mexican/southern US inspired (which makes sense considering you're in Missouri and I'm in Canada!)

Here's an Eastern European inspired concept for you - marinated veggie salad. Salted overnight and then rinsed shaved cucumbers (preferably bitter ones with the skin peeled) + diluted vinegar + pepper, paprika, sugar (no more sugar than either of the spices, but the sugar is used to balance the vinegar). Same recipe plus a titch of oil for tomatoes, carrots and most other veggies. If desired, add a finely sliced onion and/or serve with sour cream (i rarely do). I go through buckets of the stuff during the summer, though cucumber salad and tomato salad are the best. You can sub dill or garlic for paprika (or try hot paprika or smoked paprika for a change) and change the nationality or region of your salad.

My other weird tip is mayonnaise + nutritional yeast makes an AWESOME dairy free cheese-like garlic bread topping.

You all are doing fine without a recipe, but should you want one...

I can't find where I got this, but it's really tasty - kind of lemon-meringuey but richer.  And super easy to make.

Avocado Pie

1 -  8 or 9 inch graham cracker crust (or make your own)
1 large avocado
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 F

Cut avocado in half and remove the pit.  
Peel the avocado halves and cut into 1/2 inch slices.  
Mix with lemon juice in a small-ish bowl.  
Beat egg yolks until thick in a large bowl.
Add avocado/juice.
Add vanilla.  
Beat until smooth.  
Pour into graham cracker crust.  
Bake for 20 minutes.  
Cool pie (on counter or in refrigerator or whatever)

Prepare topping while pie is cooling. (note from me:  Yes, do wait - the topping separates a bit if it sits too long)

Topping:
1/2 pint sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat ingredients together.  
Pour over pie and chill thoroughly before serving.

Wonderful thread!
Pearl,  your idea of a great T day is like mine.
I spent thanksgiving cooking at our church.
We host an thanksgiving dinner for anyone who wants to drop in.
45 people came and went,  with plenty of leftovers/side dishes coming and going as well.

My punkpotato pie did not get made this year,  but it's basically a sweet potatoe/pumpkin pie, inspired by my mixed race/culture family.
It's more an act of love than of deliciousness, but my kids love ask for it  every year.
Fortunately there were many great  homemade pies of both pumpkin and sweet potatoe, so I ate them side by side.

My grandfather made mystery  pie for his guys when he was a cook in ww2.
They has been eating carrot everything for months,  and we're tired to death of them, so he came up with a heavily spiced carrot pie.
Guys who were used to pumpkin pie thought it was that,  guys who who missed sweet potatoe pie thought it was that,  and he said nothing either way!

I have a nice cheesecake recipe that can be heavily modified and still succeed.
Cheesecake is just cream cheese pie as far as I'm concerned.
My favorite variant so far is a sour cream pie, so good!
KeishThis year I plan on using it to make an eggnogg pie with gingersnap crust.

Onion pie and green pea pie are on my list of savory pies to try,  so if anyone has a good recipe,  let me know.

Quiche is another pie by another name,  and a neat way to eat protein.
I like mine green from blending in kale and spinach.