Dorion Strawberry Pie

A slice of beautiful Dorion Strawberry Pie

It's the first of June and that means it's officially strawberry time. We've had a late spring where I live, so it will likely be a few weeks before the local berries are available for picking. But that's okay. The wait will be worth it. 

When you've had your fill of eating them out of hand or in the inevitable strawberry shortcake, give this easy-to-make strawberry pie a whirl. It's perfect to make during the hot days of summer (bring it on, Mother Nature), because with the store-bought crust, you won't need the oven on. The smell of the mashed berry mixture as it cooks is so good that I find myself standing over the saucepan and inhaling deeply to get the full strawberry aroma. The pie will need some time in the fridge to cool and set, so plan accordingly and make it early in the day or even a day ahead.

This is a recipe that comes from our time spent in Northwestern Ontario. We would go strawberry picking at Ouimet Valley Strawberries. As you left with your fresh, ruby red treasures, the friendly people there gave you a printed sheet of strawberry recipes. This one was originally named Wisconsin Strawberry Pie, but it always puts me in mind of a warm June day in Dorion. 

MA’s Dorion Strawberry Pie

Ready to make pie

1 prepared 9-inch pie shell (graham, vanilla or shortbread)

7 cup strawberries, divided into 2 cups (for mashing) and 5 cups (whole or halved)

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

½ cup water

1-8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

Mashing two cups of the berries

Mash two cups strawberries.

Stir, stir, stir to make the glaze 

In a large saucepan, mix together sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in the mashed berries and water. Cook mashed mixture over medium heat. Stir with love until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Boil the mixture for about one minute, stirring all the time to keep it from sticking to the pan. Remove from heat and cool.

Layer of softened cream cheese

Soften cream cheese. You can do this by beating it until it’s smooth or put it in the microwave for 25 seconds or so.

Spread cream cheese on bottom of pie shell.

Fill pie shell with whole or halved strawberries.

Top with cooked, cooled strawberry mixture.

Chill until set, about 4 hours or overnight.

Makes six slices.

Printable Recipe for MA's Dorion Strawberry Pie

Share the Cottage Pie

Savoury cottage pie

When I go to the frozen food aisle of the grocery store in search of shepherds pie, I find a flat brick of a casserole made with ground beef, gravy, a scant handful of vegetables and a topping of mashed potatoes. There are two flaws in this scenario.

1. What I have found is not, strictly speaking, a shepherds pie. Foodies and lexicographers will tell you that a shepherds pie is made with lamb or mutton. Make the same casserole with beef and it’s a cottage pie. You can research this at length on the internet and here’s a link from the British news outlet The Guardian to get you started.
2. Regardless of what you call it, the store-bought version will never ever be as good as the cottage pie you make in your own kitchen.

This cottage pie recipe is based on a Gordon Ramsay recipe I found several years ago on Recipezaar (which has since become food.com). My version makes a savoury supper dish in a quantity large enough for sharing or freezing for future use. As you’ll see in the last photo in this post, I made two 9” round casseroles (one for dinner, one for the freezer) plus one single-serve casserole to freeze and take to my mom.

There are a few ways to tailor your cottage pie to suit your tastes and your pantry. You can play with the type of vegetables you want to use. For instance, parsnips, turnips, and mushrooms work well. Just keep them finely diced or grated so everything cooks up evenly and the pie keeps its characteristic minced texture. The food processor is your friend for this task. I like the flavour that a good red wine gives the ground beef, but you can substitute beef stock if you prefer. The mashed potato topping is traditional and delicious. I’ve used Parmesan with the potatoes, but cheddar complements this dish very well, too. I’ve also used mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes to top the cottage pie. If you do this, I recommend steaming the cauliflower, as boiling it makes the mash a little too watery.

However you choose to make this dish your own, I hope you and yours enjoy this cottage pie.

MA's Cottage Pie

Cottage pie ingredients

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Have ready 2 - 9” round casserole dishes or 1 - 9” x 13” casserole dish

2 tbsp olive oil (if ground beef is fatty, omit the oil)

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 cup celery, finely diced

2 cups onions, grated

2 cups carrots, grated

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried rosemary

2 cups red wine (substitute with beef stock, if preferred)

1 cup beef stock

3 to 4 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces

4 tbsp butter

2 egg yolks

2 to 4 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated

sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Cooking down the filling

In a large frying pan, heat the oil. Add ground beef and sauté until cooked through.

Add celery, onions, carrots, and garlic. Saute until vegetables are softened.

Add Worcestershire, puree, herbs, wine and beef stock. Cook together for 15 minutes or until the liquids have cooked down and the sauce is thickened.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until cooked through. Drain and let stand a few minutes to dry out slightly. Mash the potatoes together with butter, egg yolks, cheese, salt and pepper.

Enough to share

Place beef filling in casserole dishes.

Cover beef filling with mashed potato topping. Grate extra cheese on top of pie.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or cool and wrap for the freezer.

To cook from frozen, defrost in the refrigerator, unwrap and cook for 25 to 30 minutes or unwrap and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until pie is cooked through. 

Printable Recipe for MA's Cottage Pie

Banana Love: Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

My love affair with bananas continues in this very excellent banana cream pie.

I found the basis for this recipe online six or seven years ago. The recipe's contributor noted that their father had made this pie from scratch in his restaurant for over forty years and the pie was always a favorite. Unfortunately, I don't know more about the restaurant and can't pass on the credit. I’ve rewritten the recipe here with minor changes and when you taste it, you'll see why it was such a favorite.

To start, you’ll need a baked pie shell. You can make one using my flaky lardy piecrust recipe or whatever piecrust you like as long as it’s already baked and cooled before the filling goes in. By the way, don’t worry if your homemade crust has a few uneven edges as mine does in the photo below. Whipped cream at serving time is the perfect cover up. The pre-formed graham crust you can buy at the grocery store is also delicious in this recipe. If you use a crust that is less than 10 inches in diameter, you will have leftover filling. Put it into ramekins and enjoy a tasty little pudding dessert.

You can use whatever milk you like to make the filling. I use skim and it works just fine. However, this is one place where you will not want to use overripe bananas. Save the mushy bananas for another recipe (like blender banana cake) and use slices of the firm ones here. Because of the custard filling and the bananas, this pie is not a good keeper. Plan to have it eaten within a day or two of making it otherwise the moisture of the custard will soften the crust. 

And what about the earthquake? Occasionally, the custard filling doesn’t set as firmly as you would like. The pie will still look smooth and firm until you cut the first slice - then suddenly cracks form along the top (you can see it in the photo at the top of this post). This happened as I was serving a slice to my friend Harry. He looked at the cracks and dubbed it earthquake pie. If I'd had an extra banana, I might have covered the top of the pie with banana slices to disguise the earthquake effect. Two pieces of pie later, the seismic custard proved the old adage: it's what's inside that counts!

MA’s Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients for filling

10” baked pie shell, cooled

4 cups cold milk

8 tbsp cornstarch

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 pinch salt

4 eggs, slightly beaten

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla

2 bananas, sliced

In a medium-sized saucepan, pour cold milk.

Mix together cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add the mixture to the cold milk, stirring until all the dry ingredients are dissolved in the milk.

Cook mixture over medium heat. Stir constantly until bubbly.

Cooking the custard

Pour ¼ of the hot mixture into beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. Return egg/milk mixture to saucepan.

Continue cooking until the mixture comes back to bubbling and is thick.

MA’s Tip: If you see little brown flecks floating up, the milk and sugar have begun to scorch. Don’t panic. Try not to stir right down to the bottom of the saucepan. Turn down the heat and/or remove the saucepan for a minute or two.

Blend butter and vanilla into mixture.

Banana slices form centre layer

Pour about half the mixture into the pie shell and cover with banana slices.

Pour remaining mixture on top of the banana slices. Any leftover pie filling can be put into custard cups and served as a dessert.

Let the filling cool, then refrigerate until firm.

Top with sweetened whipped cream and serve.

If you won’t be serving the whole pie at one sitting, I recommend adding the whipped cream to each individual slice as it is served.

Printable Recipe for MA's Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

Ready for the whipped cream