(This is a cross post from
my personal blog)
[...] on request of the attendants, here comes the "Rodrigo's recipe for Pastel de Choclo made in France".
The basic ingredients are Corn, Meat, Basil and Onions. To that you will add eggs, dry raisins, black olives, milk, sugar and other spices (up to your desires).
I got to make food for 20 persons, so my proportions are a little off. But overall you want to have "half corn half meat", the rest is decoration.
- The corn should be fresh cooked corn, but we used canned corn and it was good enough.
- The meat is traditionally a mix of meat, with beef as main element, and then chicken and other mixed in (up to the cook desires). Traditionally the chicken would be grilled to get a better taste, and it would be embedded in the plate as a single piece with bones included. In our case we used simple minced beef and sliced chicken breast. Two third of beef, one third of chicken seems a reasonable proportion.
- The onions are to add taste, a reasonable proportion is one onion per 100g of meat (not all of it will go into the meat).
- The basil is for taste too, add as much as your taste tells you is fine (do not be shy).
- One egg per 100g of meat seems a reasonable proportion.
Let's start the preparation. You have to prepare four separate elements that will converge in the plate that will go in the oven: the mashed corn mix, the beef, the chicken and the eggs.
- Take all of your cooked corn and mash it (we used a machine for this). You want to obtain a mix with the consistence of a thick purée. Keep it aside.
- Take all of your chicken, slice it and cook it (uses spices as you desire). Do not cook it too much since all of it will pass a few more minutes in the oven at the end.
- Take all of your eggs and boil them.
- Now take your onions chop them in small portions and cook them slowly with chopped basil (warning: basil cooks faster than onions). Half the way of the cooking, split it in one third and two third.
- Cook your minced beef with the largest portion of onions and basil. Again do not cook it too much, since it will go into the oven too.
- Finish to cook the smallest portion of onions and basil separately, until it is "good to eaten by itself".
- Time to finish the mashed corn mix. Take the small portion of chopped onions and basil that you just cook and mix it in a pot with the corn purée. Put the pot on slow fire and mix everything (and keep mixing to avoid burning the purée). Now you can add some milk to control the thickness of the mix, you do not want it too thick or it will be to dry to eat, you do not want it too liquid or you wont get a nice result. In our case, the canned corn without water gave an almost perfect texture by them self, I just added a little of milk. You can also add a little of sugar and spices up to your desire.
Great ! So now you have cooked eggs, chicken, beef and corn purée.
Take a big plate/tray (which is the correct English word ?) that may go into the oven. Traditionally, the Pastel de Choclo would be prepared in individual clay pots, but we will do it all in a big tray.
- Start by mixing your chicken, your beef meat, some dry raisins and black olives (amount of raising and olives up to the cook, do not be too shy on the dry raisins). Lay all of it on the tray.
- Now chop your boiled eggs in circular slices and put them on top of the mix of meat.
- Now take your corn purée and use it to cover all the meat (and sliced eggs).
- Finally add a pinch of sugar on top of the corn purée (important detail).
- Put your tray into a oven at 180 degrees Celcius for around 20 minutes (a little more, a little less, you decide). You want the meat to be the cooked, the corn to be slightly toasted.
The overall taste, with the corn, sugar and raisins should be a contrast of sweet with taste of the meat, then the basil should appear, followed by a smooth touch of onion. Of course the main flavour still is "corn with meat".
I hope the instructions were clear enough for you.
Enjoy !
(and give it a shot someday to eat in Chile the real thing...)
