Friday, July 29, 2011

A Fiesta In Your Mouth

I feel that I should give you two warnings before you read this post.

First, the pictures aren't that great. Not that normally I'm channeling Annie Liebovitz or anything, but it's kind of amazing what a DSLR camera will do for your photography skills. I don't even know how to work the darn thing, and I still find myself thinking that my next gig should be as a wedding photographer or something when I look through some of the pictures that somehow show up on my screen. Anyways, Anna has done something with the battery for that amazing camera (and by done something, I mean she was playing with it and I was distracted and now it is nowhere to be found) and it is sitting all sad on the shelf in the office. I'm back to using my regular old point and shoot - still a good camera, but just not quite the same.

Second, this corn is AMAZING. You will become obsessed. Like, so good you will want to reach through the computer and give me a big kiss. Except the recipe really comes from my sister and brother-in-law, so even though I'm the one writing about it, they are the ones worthy of your affection. Save your kisses for them.

It all started last week when we were all sitting around planning some upcoming meals. We were going to have a night out on the town to see a friend's '80s band perform, but instead of going out to dinner, we wanted to cook something at home. Kristin and Drew remembered this amazing corn they ate at a restaurant in Miami and wanted to recreate it. A few clicks of the keyboard later and they found exactly what they were looking for.

Summer corn is just about in season here, and super cheap, and I have a feeling that we are going to be eating this pretty regularly. We found the crema and the Cotija cheese at a little Mexican grocery store down the road. Some recipes say you can use regular sour cream or mayo for the crema, and feta cheese instead of the cotija, but this tastes so good as it is I'm not sure I'd be willing to substitute anything...


Mexican Street Corn


Ingredients:
4 ears of corn, husks removed
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1/2 cup of crema - basically this is Mexican sour cream
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
black pepper
1/2 cup of cotija cheese, finely grated
A few lime wedges

What you do:

Cut the ears of corn in half, and rub each half with some of the oil. Grill them in a skillet or grill pan on medium-high heat, turning a few times until they are starting to get a little charred and black. This will probably take about ten minutes or so.





While the corn is cooking, combine the crema, the chili powder, and the garlic powder, and season with a little black pepper. It will taste a little bit like spicy ranch dressing.





Put the cheese on a small plate.



When the corn is done, you can put each piece on a bamboo skewer if you want. Totally optional, but more fun and a little easier for the next couple of steps.

Using a spoon, coat the corn in the crema mixture, and then roll in the cheese.




Finish off with a little sprinkling of chili powder and a squeeze of lime juice.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Special thanks to Kristin and Drew for finding the recipe, taking pictures, and being hand models. Well done, guys!

Happy Friday!

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