Paraguay

To serve with our Brazilian stew we wanted something that would be good for mopping up the juices, so we went to their next door neighbours Paraguay to find a recipe for Sopa Paraguaya - Paraguayan cornbread.

This dish worked perfectly with the stew, it was quite firm (looks like a sponge cake but its not) and could soak up lots of the sauce. The recipe called for cornmeal... which is polenta if you are looking for coarse cornmeal. Joaquin let me know that they would actually use something quite finer in Paraguay for their cornbread, I'm not quite sure what but I suppose you could use maize flour, although I think this might be difficult to source in Dublin. Use polenta, I thought it was lovely, but be aware that you may incur the wrath of an Argentian who knows best!



Sopa Paraguaya
(recipe taken from www.myrecipes.com)

Ingredients
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
1 chopped onion
1/3 green bell pepper
2 cups corn kernels (about 4 ears)
1/2 cup cottage cheese
3oz muenster or cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 large egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

Preheat oven to gasmark 6. Coat a 9in round cake tin with cooking spray and spinkle with the parmesan cheese.
Heat the butter in a pan with the oil and add the onion and bell pepper and cook until soft on a low heat, careful not to brown. Place onion mixture into a food processor with the cottage cheese and 1 1/2 cups corn and pulse until smooth. Place the pureed mixture in a bowl and add the corn, cornmeal, cheese, milk, salt and balck pepper.

Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until stiff and fold into mixture. Spoon into the prepared pan and bake in the oven for 30 mins. Cool for 10 mins before serving.