i’m sure that many of you are in the midst of making the recipe that i linked for the chilean corn pie, the elusive passtel de choclo. when i read this recipe yesterday (on cooks.com), i realized that the directions instruct you to “add meat and cook until brown,” but there’s no actual meat listed in the ingredients. i found a recipe that had the meat in it, but decided that nobody was going to attempt to make the dish.
but today my very astute friend gary e-mailed me and pointed out the lack of meat. plus he’d been much more thorough than me in reading the recipe and noticed that although flour is listed in the ingredients, there’s then no mention of it in the instructions.
so if you were to attempt to make the recipe, you’d be so frustrated by the mystery meat, not to mention the flour that you’d gone to the trouble of getting out but then not using, that you might just get very discouraged by the whole thing. perhaps somebody is trying to mess with our minds. some kind of evil plot, no doubt.
anyway, here is a much more authentic recipe by somebody named jose. it seems a little strange, what with the powdered sugar and all, but i bet it’s good.
Pastel de Choclo (English)
Dear Cyber-friends:
…I thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce you to the
pleasures of the Chilean corn and meat pie (“pastel de choclo”).
Regards,
Jose Iribarne
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CORN AND MEAT PIE
Serves 12.
This is a popular Chilean recipe.
6 large ears of corn, grate the kernels
8 leaves of fresh basil, finely chopped
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. butter
1/2-1 cup milk
4 large onions, chopped
3 tbsps. oil
1 lb. (1/2 kg) finely ground lean beef
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. ground cumin
4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1 cup black olives
1 cup raisins
12 pieces of chicken, browned in hot oil, seasoned with salt,
pepper and cumin
2 tbsps. confectioners’ sugar
Heat the grated corn, chopped basil, salt and butter in a large pot. Add
the milk little by little, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.
Cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Leave to one side while you prepare the
meat filling. Fry the onions in oil until transparent, add the ground meat
and stir to brown. Season with salt, pepper and ground cumin. To prepare
the pie use an oven-proof dish that you can take to the table. Spread over
the bottom of the dish the onion-ground meat mixture. Arrange over this
the hard boiled egg slices, olives and raisins. Put the chicken pieces on
top, bone the chicken if you like. Cover the filling with the corn
mixture. Sprinkle the confectioners’ sugar over the top. Bake in a hot
oven 400 Deg. F (205 Deg. C) for 30-35 minutes until the crust is golden
brown. Serve at once. In Chile more sugar is served to sprinkle over the
“pastel” as it is eaten. Serve with “Ensalada Chilena”.