Pastel de Choclo Muffins with a Pino Centre

Method

1. Make the pino. Finely chop the onion into 0.5 cm pieces and cook it with the oil in a 20 cm pan on medium heat for 6 min, until soft and translucent. Turn up to medium-high heat, add the beef, cumin, paprika and salt and cook for 5 min, breaking it up finely, until no pink remains and there is almost no liquid (a wet filling makes soggy muffins). Off the heat, stir in the raisins and chopped olives, spread on a plate and cool for at least 10 minutes.

   Add in this stepVegetable oil 1 tbspMedium onion 1Ground beef 120 gGround cumin ¼ tspSweet paprika ½ tspSalt 0.4 tspRaisins 4 tspPitted black olives 2

   medium heat→medium-high heat

2. Heat the oven to 190 °C. Line 4 cups of a muffin tin with paper cases or brush them lightly with butter (2 muffins per serving).

3. Blend half the corn with the milk and basil into a purée with a little texture. In a large bowl, whisk the egg, melted butter, sugar and salt, then add the corn purée and the remaining whole kernels. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold with a spatula just until no dry flour is visible; a few lumps are fine. Overmixing makes tough muffins.

   Add in this stepSweet corn kernels (fresh, or frozen and thawed) 200 gMilk 60 mlFresh basil leaves 6Eggs 1Butter, melted 30 gSugar 2⅛ tspSalt 0.4 tspPlain flour 100 gBaking powder 1 tsp

4. Put 1 tbsp batter in the bottom of each case, add a heaped tbsp of the cooled pino in the centre, then cover with the remaining batter so the cases are three-quarters full. Make sure no filling shows at the sides. Sprinkle the remaining sugar evenly over the tops.

   Add in this stepSugar 0.9 tsp

5. Bake (oven) for 20 min, until domed and the sugary tops are golden and caramelised. Push a toothpick into the batter, avoiding the filling: it should come out clean.

   oven

6. Cool in the tin for 5 min, then lift out. They are best warm; break one open to reveal the pino inside.