FLORIS Kitchenstory - The classic - Pastel de Choclo

This corn casserole or pie is the perfect symbiosis of sweet corn and savory filling. Creamy corn and beef or poultry hide under a crispy crust. We think: an absolute must on every Chilean table.

About my recipe: (4 servings)

- 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
- 5 large onion(s), finely diced
- 2 garlic clove(s), finely chopped 
- 1 kg minced beef
- 50 ml milk
- salt and pepper
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 teaspoons paprika powder, rose hot
- 125 g olives, black, pitted, coarsely chopped

- 125 g raisins, soaked in hot water
- 3 egg(s), hard boiled
- 500 g chicken meat, roasted, boneless, diced


For the cap: (corn crust, humitas)

- 50 g butter
- 750 g corn
- 200 ml milk
- 1 tsp salt 
- 2 tablespoons basil, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon sugar, for sprinkling

Preparation:

Let's start with the "pino", the minced meat preparation. In a wok or pot, heat the oil and patiently sauté the diced onion and garlic until translucent. Now fry the minced meat with a dash of milk until it crumbles. Gradually add the raisins, olives, cumin and paprika, salt and bell pepper. Finally, fold in the diced hard eggs, season one last time, and transfer the mixture to a large baking dish or several serving dishes, spreading well and pressing down a bit.

The boned meat, coarsely chopped, is spread over the meat mixture.

To prepare the "humitas", we put the corn, along with the milk and salt in a blender or food processor and puree it to a paste. Meanwhile, we heat butter in a pan and add the corn-milk porridge. Over medium heat, stirring constantly, we fry this porridge until it has thickened enough to serve as a "tombstone". Be careful on the stove: the porridge tends to react volcanically, blistering and creating rather pretty patterns around the stove. Also, the porridge burns more easily "unstirred". After we turn off the heat, we stir in the basil and spread the mush over the meat. Finally, we sprinkle it with a little sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven (200°C) for 20 minutes and increase to 220° for another 10 minutes to give the corn crust some color.

Be careful when eating the dish fresh from the oven. The heat builds up under the corn crust for quite a long time. Also, the casserole tastes better when cooled down to palate temperature.