In one way of looking at it, a cuisine’s simplest dish sometimes is its most difficult to cook.
When I was a restaurant critic, for example, and if the place that I was reviewing prepared it, I always tried to assay the menu’s roast chicken. A delicious roast chicken isn’t just a snap of the fingers.
Once, on a trip to Chile, a home cook told me that the country’s signature corn and beef “pie,” pastel de choclo, “is Chile’s easiest dish to cook — and that makes it the hardest.”
Pastel de choclo is what we would call a layered casserole or a sort of shepherd’s pie, consisting of a topping of a sweet corn polenta over a savory ground beef filling, separated by and further flavored with a vein of chopped hard boiled eggs, golden raisins and sliced olives. When skillfully assembled, with the best ingredients, its simplicity is irresistible.
“Choclo” is the word for “corn” to Chile’s indigenous people, the Mapuche. Sold in this country under the same name, it is a South American variety of corn with kernels larger, less sweet and whiter than common North American cob corn. (Although to make your own pastel de choclo, you may use the latter.)
You’ll find frozen choclo in Latin or Mexican markets, and in many Asian groceries. I add whole milk to my mash of choclo (or North American corn) in order to sweeten and moisten it.
A few moments before taking it from the oven, add a dusting of confectioner’s sugar. The top of a perfect pastel de choclo will have pulled away from the edge of the pot where it has caramelized, and when you break through the polenta in pursuit of the meat, a steam will rise, searingly hot and with the aromas of onion, beef, sweet raisins, and of choclo — of the earth.
Pastel De Choclo (Chilean Beef and Corn Casserole)
Translated from “El Libro de Dona Petrona,” 81st edition, for decades the most popular cookbook in both Argentina and Chile. The only addition to the original recipe here is the whole milk.
Ingredients
- 3 medium onions, chopped finely, separated into two batches
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons neutral vegetable oil
- 3 cups corn or choclo, unfrozen
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1½ pounds ground beef
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 1/3 cup green olives, pitted, roughly chopped
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, roughly chopped
- Salt and grated pepper, throughout, to taste
In a pot over medium-high heat, sauté one batch of the onions in 3 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon oil until soft and lightly golden, about 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile, put the corn or choclo and the milk into a food processor and blend, pulsing and scraping down, until roughly blended and pasty. Add the tomato and garlic to the onions, cook for another 2-3 minutes, then add the processed corn or choclo, salt and pepper to taste, add the sugar and mix together, cooking and stirring until the porridge begins to bubble and slightly thicken. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Prepare the beef: To another large pot, add 3 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon oil and sauté the second batch of onions until soft and slightly golden, about 5-6 minutes. Add the ground beef and brown the meat, breaking it up, until the beef appears browned throughout and has given up any juices. (If very wet, strain away some of juice in the next step.) Salt and pepper the beef, remove from the heat, and set aside.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large buttered or greased earthenware casserole or Dutch oven, place the meat mixture, and top that with the raisins, pitted olives and egg, evenly scattered about. Then evenly spread the cooked corn mixture over all. Bake, uncovered, for 30-45 minutes, until the filling is bubbling hot and the corn mixture is golden brown. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving, but serve very warm.