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Summer side dish: Grilled corn with cotija cheese, lime, butter
Hope you got your fill of hot dogs, sunburns and cheap beer this Memorial Day weekend!
Grilling season is year-round in Texas, but like everyone else in the country, we seem to cook outside more once the days get longer and the heat makes that cold beverage taste just a little colder.
I went to a few barbecues this weekend, and my last-minute contribution at one of them was a mix of roasted corn, cotija, lime and butter inspired by dishes I’ve had at the upscale interior Mexican restaurant La Condesa and Frank, the downtown hot dog joint.
La Condesa serves the traditional elote, roasted corn on the cob rolled in cotija cheese and ancho chili powder. At Frank, grilled corn is cut off the cob and mixed with chili mayonesa, lime juice, cilantro and cotija cheese.
This time of year, grocery stores often sell whole corn still wrapped in their husks for cheap. Super cheap, like six ears or more for $1 cheap.
At a neighbor’s barbecue yesterday, I made a combination of elotes and that buttery, lime-y corn dish at Frank from corn I’d bought on sale at the store just a few days before.
As I husked the corn at the picnic table, my fellow guests quickly brought up the to-husk or not-to-husk debate. I fall decidedly on the to-husk side: Corn doesn’t need much cooking at all, much less to be “steamed” by the husk. Direct heat will cook and caramelize the kernels quickly, giving them more flavors and texture than if you leave the husk on. Cook’s Illustrated recommends soaking the unwrapped cobs in a saltwater brine before grilling, but I just rubbed on a little butter and salt and grilled them straight until some of the corn had started to turn brown.
In a bowl, I cut off the kernels (or “upzip” as the frisky cooks like to say) and mixed them with more butter, crumbled queso fresco and a lime pepper salt mixture I had hidden in the spice cabinet.
I would have prefered to use cotija, if I had it on hand, but I didn’t, so queso fresco it was. (Cotija is aged and stronger than fresco, but in a pinch, either will work.)
I rarely cook with recipes for dishes like this, so for you fellow renegades, feel free to add ancho chile powder, chipotle chile power, cayenne, cilantro, fresh lime juice, mayonnaise or any number of additional ingredients to make your own version of this dish.
For those of you after a recipe, here’s a basic outline, but feel free to mix and match with the ingredients you have and like:
Roasted corn with cotija cheese, lime, butter and ancho chile powder
6 ears corn
4 Tbsp. butter, divided
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cotija cheese
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp. ancho chile powder
Pull back the husks from the corn, but don’t remove them entirely. Leave the husks attached to act as a handle to rotate the cobs while grilling. Rub half the butter on the cobs and sprinkle with salt. Place on the grill and cook, turning every few minutes, until the kernels have started to turn brown, about 8 minutes.
As you hold the corn by the husk over a medium bowl, cut off the kernels from the cob. Mix in the rest of the butter, cheese, lime juice and chile powder. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, if needed.
— Addie Broyles
Top photo by Deborah Cannon for the Austin American-Statesman. Bottom photo by anotherpintplease on Flickr, via Creative Commons.
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By Optimista
June 4, 2010 7:41 AM | Link to this
This looks so incredibly delicious! I really MUST try this soon. Thanks for the great recipe, Addie!