Final Chilean Cuisine Post

I know the salad is pretty normal, but

it looks so good and tastes even better.

Tia Jaqui's Pastel de Choclo looks amazing

and was among the best I've ever had.

Well, after several weeks of posting about Chilean cuisine, I'm going to finish off with my favorite Chilean meal, period.

The pastel de choclo that you see above is typically made during the summer months, generally from early December to late March, due to this being the principal growing season of corn here. This casserole-type dish is made up of several layers. The bottom layer is maybe up of meat, either chicken or ground beef, often a combination of both, in a mixture of seasonings and onion. Then a layer of hard-boiled eggs is added, along sometimes with raisins, although I don't like raisins in my food. Finally a thick layer of corn that has been mashed and cooked in cream is added to the top, with olives inside it. They top this off by sprinkling a layer of sugar on top so as to sweeten the corn. The thing that makes this unique to Chile is that the corn here is not sweet corn, like that which we consume in the states. Here you don't eat corn on the cob because it simply would not taste good. Most corn dishes are cooked dishes which have been sweetened. However, this is what makes the recipe difficult to replicate outside of Chile.

In any case, back to the dish. All of this is placed inside an oven-proof ceramic bowl, which is then baked in that bowl and served immediately. If there were a type of Chilean comfort food, this would probably be it. It's always best when homemade (you have to go to a truly excellent restaurant to find a good pastel de choclo in Santiago), and my aunt made me some the other day and it was unbelievably good.

With pastel de choclo, you generally serve it with Chilean salad, which is basically regular salad that has been deconstructed, served with each vegetable individually placed on a large platter. Then you add lemon, oil, and salt instead of dressing. However, that night my aunt and uncle had just recently returned from the extreme South of Chile. There they purchased centolla, which if you recall is Chilean king crab. I find it preferable to Alaskan king crab, and they purchased 2 kilos (about 4 1/2 pounds) of it for approximately $15 a kilo, which is absurdly cheap. My aunt served me a salad with a bed of lettuce, fresh centolla, fresh shrimp, all served under salsa americano, or what we commonly refer to as thousand island.

Here is a recipe for any intrepid chefs that want to attempt to make pastel de choclo. I checked it out and it seems fairly accurate:

Pastel de Choclo Recipe

Thanks for reading my blog. I wish you all the merriest of Christmases or the happiest of Hannukahs. Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year, and I hope to see all of you soon.