Pastel de Choclo

About Pastel de Choclo

Chile's great summer casserole — a clay pot layered with pino (spiced beef, chicken, egg and olive) and topped with a thick, golden crust of ground fresh corn sweetened with basil and a dusting of sugar; baked until the corn top browns; the sweet corn crown over the savoury filling is quintessentially Chilean.

Chile's great summer casserole is built in a clay pot: a base layer of pino (the same beef, egg, olive and chicken filling used in empanadas, sometimes with a full chicken piece), then a crust of ground fresh corn (choclo) that's been cooked with milk, basil and butter until it thickens to a golden paste. A dusting of sugar goes on top before the clay pot enters the oven. When it emerges, the corn crust is bronzed and slightly caramelised, sweet and fragrant.

The corn crust is what makes Pastel de Choclo Chilean rather than anything else — the basil and butter give it an herbaceous richness, and the sweetness of the summer corn contrasts with the savoury meat below. It is only made during corn season (December to March in the Southern Hemisphere), which gives it the quality of something earned by waiting.

What to Expect

The clay pot arrives directly from the oven, the corn crust bubbling at the edges. You break through the surface with a large spoon and the steam is fragrant with basil. The first spoonful has both layers — the sweet, creamy corn and the savoury, olive-studded meat beneath. The contrast is the point.

Why Try It

Pastel de Choclo is Chilean cooking's most direct connection to the indigenous Mapuche corn tradition, filtered through Spanish colonial technique. It's only fully right in the Southern Hemisphere summer, when the fresh choclo is available.