Corn pancakes with pork (cachapas con cerdo)

"Cachapas are a sort of a sweet and savoury pancake that's made with sweet, young corn. But what really makes a cachapa a cachapa is the melted cheese inside!"

Credit: The Latin Kitchen

• makes

  6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  5:45 hours

• difficulty

  Mid

Pork and cheese go really well with cachapas, but you can use beef or chicken or whatever you have in the fridge. If you are making the roast pork, you'll need to start the recipe a day ahead. The cachapas, though, are quick to make and ready in as little as 15 minutes. 

 

Ingredients

Roast pork

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• 1½ cups (355 ml) orange juice
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) lemon juice
• ½ cup (120 ml) pineapple juice
• 3 tsp ground cumin
• 1 bunch coriander (cilantro), chopped
• 450 gm (1 lb) boneless pork shoulder

Cachapas

• 4 cups fresh corn kernels
• 3 eggs
• ⅔ cup (160 ml) milk
• ⅔ cup (160 ml) sugar
• ¼ cup (60 ml) melted butter
• 4 cups white corn flour (see Note)
• 6 slices mozzarella or haloumi cheese (see Note)
• 2-3 avocados, sliced
• 1/8 tsp of salt
• Butter, for frying

Pork marinating time: overnight.

Instructions

1. For the pork: In a food processor, combine garlic, onion, jalapeño, orange juice, lemon juice, pineapple juice, cumin and coriander. Process until smooth. Place pork shoulder in a plastic bag, and cover with the marinade. Press air out of the bag, seal bag, and refrigerate for 24 hours to marinate.

2, Preheat oven to 425^o F (220^o C).

3, Remove pork from marinade and place on a parchment-lined baking tray. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove pork from the oven and cover with foil. Reduce oven temperature to 165^oC (325^oF). Return pork to the oven and to cook for 5 hours.

4. Let pork rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Using two forks, shred the pork off the bone into fine threads. Refrigerate until later use.

5. For the cachapas: In a food processor, blend together corn, eggs, milk, sugar and salt until smooth. With food processor is running, add melted butter in a constant stream and process until smooth. Working a cup at a time, add corn flour and process until incorporated.

6. To cook the cachapas, heat a non-stick pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat.

7. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the skillet. Ladle 4 oz /120 grams of pancake batter into the pan and cook until edges are golden brown and bubbles start to appear on the surface. Flip and continue cooking for 1 minute. Remove pancake from the pan and set aside. Repeat with remaining batter to cook six pancakes.

8. Increase heat to medium high and melt 3 tbsp of butter in the skillet. Add reserved pulled pork to the pan and cook for 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes, until pork is heated throughout and starting to get crisp.

9. To serve, top each cachapa with a slice of mozzarella and pulled pork. Fold each cachapa in half over the fillings and transfer back into the pan to melt the cheese. Once cheese has melted, remove cachapa from the pan and serve immediately with sliced avocado.

Notes

•“Back home in Venezuela we would use queso de mano, which is a very fresh unripened cheese.  But you can use mozzarella or haloumi cheese, and they'll both get ooey-gooey,” Juan Pablo says.

• In The Latin Kitchen, Juan Pablo uses harina pan, a precooked white cornflour also known as masarepa. Find it in specialist retailers and some greengrocers (Harina PAN is also the name of one of the common brands). It is not the same as masa harina, a treated corn flour used for tortillas, although you will see recipes for cachapas using that, too. To make sure this recipe is gluten-free, check that the cornflour you use is 100 per cent corn.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Pork and cheese go really well with cachapas, but you can use beef or chicken or whatever you have in the fridge. If you are making the roast pork, you'll need to start the recipe a day ahead. The cachapas, though, are quick to make and ready in as little as 15 minutes.