Growing up I only knew of one way to eat corn on the cob - salt and butter and lots of it. Sure, drippy butter on fresh sweet corn is a fantastic pairing, but a few years ago I started skipping the butter and just kept the flakey kosher salt and I never missed a thing.
But this year, I have a new tradition: Mexican corn. When I was in NYC earlier this summer, I ate a grilled cob covered in lime, salt, chili flakes and cheese at the Brooklyn Flea. It was love at first bite. So when I spotted some corn at a local market, I let my new instincts take over.
Traditional Mexican corn is called Elote and fresh corn is spread with mayonnaise and then sprinkled with cotija cheese. While I'm fine with mayo, I wanted to keep this corn light and bright, so I skipped that along with the butter and the results were super tasty. I couldn't find cotija cheese, so I used crumbled feta but grated Parmesan cheese also is mighty tasty too. Next time, I'll skip the cheese and take the more puritan route of the lime juice-chili-salt sprinkles, but that's just me.
Lime, corn, salt and chili totally screams of summer. Get your backyard grill going and grill the corn in their husks or just steam the cobs like I did and enjoy summer at its sweetest.
Mexican Corn
4 cobs of corn
1 lime, cut into quarters
1 teaspoon aleppo pepper (or cayenne or crushed chili flakes)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons crumbled cotija cheese, feta or grated parmesan (optional)
Shuck corn and place in a large pot and cover halfway with cold water. Once the water has boiled, the corn is ready. Briefly rinse under cold water until it cools down enough to handle.
Squeeze lime juice all over your corn cob and sprinkle with salt and aleppo pepper. I like to blend the salt and aleppo pepper together and put into a small bowl, so it's ready mixed and ready to sprinkle. Dribble some cheese over top and start chewing.
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Vancouverite, foodie, crafty, freelance designer, Jeannette Ordas from the popular food blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches joins us every Wednesday enticing us with her hearty and simple recipes!
