Pastel de choclo

Ingredients

• Sweetcorn — kernels, fresh or frozen1.2 kg
• Minced beef700 g
• Chicken thigh — poached, in pieces400 g
• Onion4
• Eggs — boiled, halved3
• Black olives12
• Raisins60 g
• Basil20 g
• Milk250 ml
• Butter60 g
• Ground cumin1 tbsp
• Sugar3 tbsp
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Fry the finely chopped onion until translucent, add the mince, cumin, salt and pepper and cook through. Let the pino cool; warm, it will weep.

   25 min

2. 2

   Blitz the corn with the basil and milk to a coarse but even mass.

   8 min

3. 3

   Cook it down with the butter over medium heat, stirring, for about fifteen minutes, until a spoon stands up in it.

   17 min

4. 4

   Divide the pino between earthenware dishes and top each with a piece of chicken, half an egg and a couple of olives with raisins.

   8 min

5. 5

   Cover with a two-centimetre layer of the corn mass, level it and dust with sugar.

   5 min

6. 6

   Bake at 200 °C for forty minutes, the last five under the grill, to a dark caramel crust.

   45 min

About the dish

The corn lid is made from fresh kernels, not flour. They are blitzed with basil and milk and cooked down to a porridge thick enough to sit on top without running.

The filling — pino — is made separately and in advance. It is the same onion-heavy mince that goes into Chilean empanadas, and it always carries an olive, raisins and half a boiled egg.

The top is dusted with sugar and grilled to a caramel crust. Sweet against savoury is normal in Chile: the sugar here balances the cumin and the onion.

Worth knowing

• — Chilean corn is starchier than European sweetcorn. With ordinary sweet kernels, add a spoon of cornflour or the lid will not set.
• — The earthenware dishes are not decoration: they hold heat and the crust colours evenly. In glass, the edges darken before the middle.
• — The pino is made the day before. Overnight the flavours level out and the onion stops reading as a separate ingredient.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

27 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Chile

• Empanadas de pino — Baked pastries with a meat filling, an olive and an egg. Chilean food for 18 September and for any Sunday.