It's pie season.

Mainland visitor Kathy Egland wrote in to request a pie she craves, one she enjoyed at a restaurant on Kauai. She remembers the name of the pie but not the restaurant. She said it was very like a pecan pie but made with macadamia nuts.

I called some Kauai sources, but nobody recalled it.

Then I canvassed my old cookbooks and found a recipe by that name in one of my favorites "Kahikiola Cook Book," written by members of that Congregational church in Kohala. Better yet, it was contributed by a woman I wish I'd had the chance to meet, a well-known "cafeteria lady" named Gertrude L. Chong. Chong was known for her delicious and reliable recipes.

Then I got a letter from a reader right here in Honolulu who sent in a recipe for Paradise Pie that she found in a Mainland cookbook.

Both sound like they could be "it." They use roughly the same ingredients but they are rather different in approach.

In both cases, you need an unbaked pie shell (if using a frozen shell, leave it frozen until it's time to fill it). Be sure to use dry- roasted, unsalted macadamia nuts, the ones labeled "natural." It would be a shame to waste all those ingredients on too salty a pie — especially at the cost of macadamia nuts (1.25 pounds cost me $10.99 at Longs — on sale).

These pies go together very quickly, especially if you pulse the macadamia nuts in the food processor (pulse in very brief bursts so as not to grind the nuts). And if you have a stand mixer, measure the butter and brown sugar into the bowl of the stand mixer and get it started while you measure the remaining ingredients.

GERTRUDE CHONG'S MACADAMIA NUT PIE

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

3 well-beaten eggs

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup macadamia nuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat together butter and sugar. Add corn syrup, eggs, salt and vanilla. When well-mixed, add nuts. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Baked at 325 degrees for one hour.

Makes 8 generous servings; 10 slimmer servings.

• Per serving: 610 calories, 31 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 85 mg cholesterol, 400 mg sodium, 82 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 60 g sugar, 6 g protein

Emma Jean Mader of Honolulu wrote to send in a recipe she got from a 1973 book, "Say Ah-h-h-h-h" by the Women's Auxiliary to the San Diego County Medical Society. She said she didn't know anything about the Paradise Pie from Kauai, but this one sounds just like the one described. It's quite different from Gertrude Chong's.

PARADISE PIE

3 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 › cups chopped mac nuts

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 unbaked pie shell

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs with sugar and corn syrup. Stir in nuts; add butter and vanilla; blend well. Pour into pastry shell and bake at 325 degrees 50 minutes or until the center of the pie is set.

Makes 8 generous servings; 10 slimmer servings.

• Per serving: 650 calories, 39 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 85 mg cholesterol, 330 mg sodium, 73 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 50 g sugar, 7 g protein