ElectroKemist Cuisine
  • Home
  • Contact me....
  • Blogs

Pastel De Choclo - Chilean 'Meat and Corn Casserole/Pie'

10/16/2011

2 Comments

 
Picture
Buenos Dias/Tardes Mis rasa!

I hope at least some of you have found some time to have a crack at making the last recipe I put on here.  In a similar vein, I am sticking with a hispanic comfort foody theme for this second recipe.
I have made this a couple of times now and I have given it my own slight twists in order to bring out some flavours in the dish which I though were the best bits, so before anyone goes shouting at me that it's not truly *authentic* - I know it isn't!! :op
That shouldn't put you guys off though, as stated previously, it's all about picking ideas out and even putting your own take into action on any given recipe and tailor it to your, or whoever you're feeding's pallette.

First, a bit of background on this dish.  As the title suggests, it's a South American, specifically Chilean recipe which is taken from a traditional dish of Chile, if not the national dish of the country.  It works based on the sweet and salty balance of the various ingredients and contains some unusual ingredients that may raise a few eyebrows amongst more conservative cooks among us.

The Ingredients:
3 medium red or white onions, chopped,
2 cloves chopped garlic,
olive oil,
700-800g or 1.5 pounds of beef mince,
splash (1 tblspn) of balsamic vinegar,
100ml red wine - preferably chilean, a carmenere maybe!
3 teaspoons cumin,
2 teaspoons salt,
1-2 tsp ground black pepper,
3 cups sweetcorn (fresh or frozen will be fine),
100ml whole milk,
10g butter,
10-15 leaves finely chopped basil,
1 small spring of Thyme,
2-3 heaped tblsp of raisins,
175-200g chopped black olives,
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped,
4  shredded roasted chicken thighs.

What to do:

1. First thing to do is to get the chicken thighs nice and crispy and extract some flavour to go with the beef mince, so add some olive oil to a frying pan and get it fairly hot before adding the four chicken thighs.  Cook these through until the skins have gone crispy and golden (Picture 1).  Place them onto a plate or a wooden chopping board to rest.  Do not discard the oil in the pan as the onions and mince will now be cooked in this. 

2. Fry the onions until they are translucent and starting to brown, now add the beef mince and cook through, breaking it up and mixing with the onions as thoroughly as possible (Picture 2), add the black pepper, cumin, two chopped cloves of garlic, raisins and olives once the mince has all browned. fry for another 5 minutes and then add the balsamic vinegar first, then the red wine and simmer until these are reduced by half with the juices from the beef mince.
Picture
Picture 1 - Fried Chicken
Picture
Picture 2 - Beef Mince
3. Now, allow this to rest in the pan while you boil the four eggs until they are hard all the way through.  You can even perhaps do this step first, drain off the water and remove all the shells from the eggs.  Roughly chop them into quarters or slices as to your preference.

4. Pour the beef mince, raisins, olives and onions into a casserole dish.  On top of the mince, place the chopped hard-boiled eggs.  Now you will need to shred the chicken off the bone, the best technique is probably using two forks to pull the chicken off the bone and break it up as much as possible.  Place the shredded chicken thighs (without the bones!!) across the beef and eggs and move to one side (Pictures 3 and 4).
Picture
Picture 3 - Shredding Chicken
Picture
Picture 4 - Ready for a Corn Topping
5. To make the topping for the Pastel De Choclo, you will need to add the milk, butter, salt, sweetcorn, thyme and basil together in a blender and blitz them until you have a fairly smooth liquor, I usually hold back a small amount of the sweetcorn to add in after this blitzing.  Add this topping liquid to a saucepan and simmer until this is reduced by approximately a third of it's original volume.  You can then pour this over the top of the rest of the casserole, ensuring even coverage.  The topping should be quite thick so as it stays on the top of the other meatier parts of the dish.

6. Transfer the Pastel De Choclo into an oven at gas mark 8 or around 220 degrees celsius.  Cook until the crust has gone a golden brown colour, don't be put off by the green tinge given by the basil!!  (Picture 5.)

There you have it... it is definitely best served hot on a cold day to provide some comfort.  I usually just serve it with some crusty bread or a crunchy side salad to provide some contrast.
Picture
Picture 5 - Pastel De Choclo
You can play about with this recipe depending on how sweet or salty you like the contrast in the meat and the corn topping.  I tend to tone down the sweeter flavours, but you can add some brown sugar or molasses to the topping if you fancy making it a sweeter proposition!

As a wine recommendation (for those waiting for one), something Chilean would be spot on, at the moment, Asda are doing a very very affordable Cabernet Sauvignon-Carmenere called Gran Tierra, it hits the spot and goes pretty well with this dish.  The beauty of the Asda stuff is that it's only £4 a bottle at the moment whereas I have seen it in other supermarkets pushing £9.  Bargain (at the time of writing the blog that is!!).  For me, any decent Carmenere would go well with this dish as it is robust enough to handle the red meat, saltiness and the sweetness of the crust. 

Have fun and enjoy guys!!

Pedro.
2 Comments
Graham
10/19/2011 05:14:57 am

Looks good! Have seen a few recipes for this, but this looks quite interesting - any reason why you used chicken thighs instead of breast?

-Graham

Reply
The ElectroKemist link
10/20/2011 07:18:07 am

Hi!

First of all, thanks for your comment.

Regarding the question, the reason I chose chicken thighs was for one main reason and that is flavouring. Most breast meat these days, whilst good in curries and other dishes for taking on the flavour of other elements, is rather bland to be honest unless it's a really good one sourced from a butcher's with the skin still on etc.

The thighs are usually quite cheap too, but they have the bone and the skin on most of the time, which I left in while I fried the chicken to try and extract as much of the flavour to go into the casserole!

Hope this helps!

Pedro.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2019
    July 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Tweets by @PedroCotzier
    Blogs we like:

    Matching Food and Wine by Fiona Beckett
    Wirrale Drinker by Rob
    Liverbeer
    BeersManchester
    Boak and Bailey
    RealeLiverpool

    Archives

    January 2019
    July 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    RSS Feed

    Click ^ the RSS Feed to follow me



    Feel free to add feedback to any of the topics covered in the blogs!

    Categories

    All
    100 Foods Beers List
    2012
    2016
    2017
    23 Club
    3 Potts
    AD HOP
    AD HOP Brewing
    Baguio Craft Brewery
    Baking
    Barley
    Battle Of The Breweries
    Beans
    Beef
    Beer
    Beer Cities
    Beer Festival
    Belgium
    Bitter
    Black Lodge
    Botb
    Bottle Baron
    Bottle Tree
    Bratislava
    Brewdog
    Brewery
    Brewfist
    British
    Brno
    Brussels
    Burgers
    Camp And Furnace
    Camra
    Can Cook
    Cask
    Casserole
    Cheese
    Chester
    Chicken
    Chilean
    Chinese
    Chorizo
    Clove Hitch
    Connoisseur Ales
    Craft Beer
    Craft Minded
    Crosby Bottle Beer Shop
    Czech
    Dead Crafty
    Delirium
    Dessert
    Deva Craft Beer
    Drink
    Egg
    Eggs
    Ethiopian
    Event
    Festival
    Fflvrindavan
    Food
    Food Pairing
    Food Poverty
    Food Waste
    Freedom
    Fruit
    Game
    General
    George Wright
    Gin
    Glen Affric
    Graffiti
    Green Beans
    Grove
    Guest
    Gueuze
    Handyman
    Hawkshead
    Higsons
    Holborn Trade
    Homebrewing
    Hong Kong
    Indian
    Italian
    Jacaranda
    Japanese
    Kabinett
    Korean
    Lager
    Lambic
    Lebanese
    Leeds
    Lentils
    Liverpool
    Liverpool Craft Beer Expo
    Liverpool Craft Brewery
    Liverpool Organic Brewery
    Loaf
    Londis
    London
    Mad Hat Brewing Company
    Mad Hatter Brewing Company
    Manchester
    Mauritian
    Meat
    Meet The Brewer
    Melwood Beer Company
    Merseyside
    Monro
    Moonsugar Brewing
    Neptune
    Neptune Brewery
    Oktopus
    Orange
    Oriental
    Parker
    Pastry
    Pattersons
    Pear
    Pen Factory
    Philippines
    Pie
    Pineapple
    Pizza
    Pop Up
    Pop-up
    Pork
    Porter
    Prawns
    Pumpkin
    Real Ale
    Recipe
    Recycling
    Red Star
    Red Star Brewery
    Restaurant
    Review
    Rock The Boat
    Soup
    Sour Beer
    Sourdough
    Spanish
    Starter
    Stout
    Tap And Bottles
    Tapas
    Tempest Brewing
    Thai
    Threshold
    Tortilla
    Trappist
    Tripel
    Twiglet
    Vegetarian
    Venison
    Vietnamese
    Weird Beard
    Wheat Beer
    Wild Beer
    Wine
    Winemaking

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.