Summer is the season to be a corn glutton. You may find tomatoes and zucchini from Mexico throughout the year in supermarkets, but corn is still a seasonal summer treat. Corn is a wild plant, as in, it is amazingly weird. It is a grass, the largest one. And the way corn is pollinated is bizarre. Each one of the strands of corn silk corresponds to an individual corn niblet. So when you see a corn cob that is missing niblets, it’s because those silks weren’t pollinated.
Northern Indian street food Bhutta Ka Kees is a bowl of spiced grated sweet corn. Photo by Shutterstock.
My first summer corn experience always has to be the way I ate it as a child. Two corn-shaped plastic “holders” are jammed into either end of a quickly boiled ear that is then rolled in softened butter and sprinkled with salt. It’s messy and dental floss is required immediately after eating it, but it’s truly the best and the easiest.
The next easiest way to cook corn is to grill it. Once the ears are grilled, there is so much you can do with it. Many listeners like to simply slather grilled corn with butter and salt and go for it. But once you cut the kernels off the cob, you can add them to salads and their use expands. And of course, you can dress it up on the cob as elotes, aka Mexican style, by slathering it with mayo, tajin or chile powder, a drizzle of crema and a blizzard of queso añejo or cotija and cilantro. If you’re making elotes, that’s the meal if you allot two per person. Or if you prefer to cut the niblets off the cob, you can make esquites, which has all the components of elotes but served in a cup.
Cutting corn off the cob allows you to be free to make innumerable summer salads. Photo by Shutterstock.
I should say that you can eat corn raw. It’s delicious and it doesn’t get stuck in your teeth. A few listeners use raw corn in simple salads. One suggests combining it with avocado, cherry tomatoes and green onion, dressed with just a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
One listener eats corn cut off the cob and sauteed with bacon and soy sauce for breakfast, which sounds perfect to me.
Then there are the recipes which require a bit more work. One of my favorites is fresh corn polenta. You can grate the niblets off the cobs or cut them off, then whiz them up in the food processor. I generally grate them directly into the saucepan with either a glug of olive oil or butter with a bit of salt, and cook over low heat while stirring. It thickens in just a few minutes. You can eat it that way or add a more butter and some Parmigiano Reggiano and call it dinner. If you want to make it fancier, you can alway reserve some intact corn niblets to saute and use as garnish. There is a Northern Indian dish called bhutte ka kees that takes this simple grated “porridge” idea to a new level with spices and a fresh coconut garnish.
And to really make a statement try Ottolenghi’s corn creme brulée.