I’ll soon come out of the spell that Mexico has cast upon me, but with an alternate work-life going on down there, it’s hard to escape the marvel of the cuisine. We don’t know anything of it here in the States. What passes as Mexican here simply cannot be found there. Last week, I finally had the honor of eating at Pujol, where local ingredients were elevated into a meal fit for royalty. After that, I simply could not turn my attention toward any less subtle pull. If I had half the talent of the chefs at Pujol or the grandmothers who work for days over a true mole, I probably would not have cut my thumb deeply on my mandolin trying to recreate a salad. That’s why I’m a little late in posting this week. I’ve been forced to become a lefty for the time being. But alas, a true cook marches on. And so shall I.
I grew up in corn fields and so I hesitate to make any corn recipe before July or August. But young corn has started to make its way up to New York from the South and I was longing for this so I indulged. With corn, freshness is key. If you could bring a grill out to the cornfield and cook the corn right there off the stalk, that would be the ideal freshness. Each moment the corn is away from the stalk, more of its natural sugars turn to starch and change the experience. So get your corn as fresh as possible. Otherwise canned corn will do. Here you char it, slather it with a mixture of butter and mayonnaise, cumin and smoked chili pepper with a twist of citrus-y lime and you are golden. You can eat it fresh off the cob or cut the kernels off and put it in a jar to make a more elegant appetizer, fork and spoon style. Either way, this corn is something bright and exalted, like the first rays of sun beaming through the corn fields in spring.
Let me tell you a little bit about why I’m obsessed with Mexico. Only in Mexico do I stop at a street stall and order soft tacos with molcajetes full of bright, delicious salsas or buy stuffed churros from the man on the corner, sip smoky mezcal, listening with moist eyes to sentimental songs from street musicians. I know Mexico City is supposed to be dangerous, but when I’m working there and my evenings look like this– full of art and artistry– even after a long day, I find myself surveying the night and thinking for the hundredth time, what an extraordinary place this is. And though I long for home and everyone I love, my fresh country produce and all that I know and hold dear, a piece of my heart and now my thumb, is sectioned off for Mexico.
I’ve managed to secure myself some time back at home for a bit and I’m so excited to be here. The time with family and friends is not only precious, but it comes in the perfect season where everything wonderful begins again at the farmers’ markets! I’m so excited to share the recipes I’ve been trying to find the time to make. I woke up last night bursting with a list of everything I want to create. I need to get my hands on the “first mess of peas” for a recipe using the old-school pasta maker that Michelle and Steve sent me after I drooled over the pasta on their blog. I want to show you how to debone a Cornish hen the way my former neighbor did, stuffing it with fresh local ingredients without compromising the integrity of its shape. This doesn’t rival Ken and Jody’s breakdown of a rabbit this week. I have my own twist on Cynthia’s horchata after spending all this time in Mexico and having an inspired version in Spain. I’ve got a cake coming up to pair with it that uses no flour. Plus, I haven’t quite kicked the Korean phase I’ve been in, especially after getting Roy Choi’s L.A. Son from the library. Expect some bulgolgi tacos with a twist sometime in the near future or a nice cold stew. It’s so great to have the excitement and time to water my New York roots again. Speaking of which, the New York Botanical Garden is indeed recreating Frida Kahlo’s garden from the Casa Azul and importing some of her paintings too. I cannot wait to see it. The art and landscape of Mexico is truly unrivaled and it is amazing to feel the vibrations of that kinetic energy in my own city.
Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Spring and buen provecho!
MEXICAN STREET CORN ON THE COB (ELOTE)
Ingredients:
- 4 ears of corn
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 4 wedges lime
- 1/2 cup grated cotija cheese
- sprinkle of chipotle pepper
- salt to taste
Directions:
Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
Grill corn until hot and lightly charred all over, 7 to 10 minutes, depending on the temperature of the grill. Combine mayonnaise, cumin, and the juice of half a lime. Roll the ears in melted butter, then spread evenly with mayonnaise combo. Sprinkle with cotija cheese and hot pepper serve with a lime wedge. Add salt to taste.
If you are cooking the corn indoors, like I’m often forced to do, pre-heat the oven to 400ºF. Wrap each shucked cob tightly in tin foil. Cook for 20 minutes. Unwrap and roll corn in mayonnaise mixture and then sprinkle the cheese and pepper on top. Add salt as needed.
You could also boil the corn for about 5 minutes or until you can just smell it. You miss out on the char this way though. Then add all of the ingredients. Either way it’s delicious.
I’ve also had it with the kernels removed from the cob in glass cup covered with the mayo mixture and spices. Eat with a fork. Buen provecho!
Image courtesy of my lovely coworker Julian Radzinschi. We have tag-teamed Mexico so we don’t miss a thing.
Image of tacos al pastor courtesy of my coworker Julian Radzinschi, Mexico tag team extraordinaire.
Image courtesy of my coworker Julian Radzinschi
I love corn.. This is one of the famous Indian street food as well sold near many beaches. Your clicks r tempting me to eat onr
That’s so cool that it’s famous in India too. So so good! Thanks so much for your comment. Have a lovely weekend! xo
Yes ma’am, you better believe I’ll be tossing some corn on the grill with this in mind. Really looking forward to reading all your exciting up and coming posts. 🙂
Oh I’m sure yours will be wonderful. Always great to see you here! So nice that you can share my excitement. Your comments always make my day. xo
Oh yum! Corn with those ingredients must be heavenly. This recipe comes in time for grilling season so I will grill my corn and dip it in the ingredients. I would even forgo the low carb, low fat regimen I’m on to get a taste of corn made this way. I’m sure it won’t be the same experience as it is in the photo of the woman in Mexico boiling it on the boat! But that is why you and I cook ethnic food so much – to evoke the experience of being there. Like mother like daughter!
Hi Mom! I was thinking of you as I made these. I remember when you used to make us all shuck corn for a wonderful grill evening. Summer nights are the best. I’ll bring you the mixture for the slather so you don’t have to feel bad about making it yourself. One little piece of this is good enough. You’re absolutely right. I learned everything from you. The passion for travel and cooking. Cooking really opens the world right up to you like languages, which is why we were both drawn to both. So nice to see you here. I’ll come up to visit very soon. I need a break.
This is so simple yet so awesome.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Dana. 🙂 xo
As always, I love all the colorful photos! This corn looks wonderful! Thanks for reminding me about the book L.A. Son–I heard an interview about that book on NPR awhile ago and it sounded so interesting! Hope your thumb heals soon.
Thank you, Jenny! I hope so too re: my thumb. It scared the hell out of me. I was contemplating going to the hospital, but it was such a clean slice there was nothing to sew up. Scary. LA Son is a pretty good book. You’d think the combos wouldn’t work with Korean and Mexican, but I have enough friends who live in LA who say it’s divine that I”m willing to try it 🙂
Exciting time for you Amanda with lots of new experiences. Your photos are outstanding.
Corn season will be here shortly and I definitely will try your recipe.
Exiting and exhausting, Jovina. I really appreciate your support, over the last few months and in general. You remind me sometimes to stay excited and not give in to the desire to crawl under the covers and hide. I can’t wait for true corn season. Your blog is also a constant reminder that Italy is out there waiting for me 🙂 xo
Amazing, Amanda. I absolutely adore fresh corn, but it is not always easy to find here in France (and then, only at the end of August, beginning of September). I’d love to try this some day, though I know it wouldn’t beat your experience, no matter how hard I try.
Spring is finally here too and everything is flowering, and I’ve been enjoying staying away from the kitchen, taking a break from yoga, working hard at my new job, and laughing with my fun new colleagues, and also just sitting outside with family and friends enjoying the nice weather, sipping fresh white wine. I should kick myself in the butt and get back to serious matters such as yoga and cooking, but this week of “farniente” felt great; I hope you are enjoying your own time with family and friends as well… but I cannot wait to see your springtime recipes!
So great to hear from you, Darya. Isn’t it funny when work is a break from all of the self imposed things we love like cooking and working out/yoga. I”m glad for you. There is something to be said for having a break and I sure could use a week or three of “farniente.” I’d like to just sit and sip rose!! and laugh with the people who are always with me, without having to carry the weight of running a case in another country with me. It’s like dragging a barge through the desert sometimes. I still want to come to Europe, especially in spring with the markets starting, but I have to see how A is doing with his flight fear. I’m glad you’re liking your new job! I want to see your spring recipes too. So much more to catch up on . Much love. xo
I think you are stuck with the Mexican spell – I have some Spanish friends who lived there and still have it in their blood 20 years later. I know what you mean about corn, my farmer will have the most amazing stuff when the English summer arrives. He cuts it the day before the farmers market. If only I could go and pick it from his field! It sounds fabulous with chipotle, cumin and lime – I’d love to be able to buy it straight from someone on the street.
I was in the butcher’s today and he boned a capon for the customer in front of me. It took no more than 5 minutes from start to finish – the whole shop watched in awe.
What kind of meat are the taco makers cooking on that spit? I assume it’s pork, being Mexico, but it looks very much like the Greek and Turkish lamb doner kebabs which are very common in London.
Great pictures and post, as always 😉
OH to have those butcher skills. It sounds like you have a great butcher. It’s hard over here to find someone who will do that for you upon request. The trend here is big departments these days. It’s chicken in the picture and I think beef.. Their “al pastor” is chicken a lot of times and pork for carnitas. But it’s definitely the same method as the doner kebabs. Just less lamb. I think you’re right about Mexico never leaving you. Even when I’m tired, fed up and my stomach hurts from the water, when I want nothing but a burger and a beer I’m still enchanted. That’s how you know you’re in 🙂 Thanks as always for your thoughtful comments, MD.
I can bone a chicken, but definitely not in 5 minutes. I do have a very good butcher and very old school. He even looks after all his elderly customers, helping them in and out of the shop and even dropping things off at their homes if necessary. There are not many like him these days. I have a friend from Barcelona who talked her way into working for a butcher in New York, after doing a desk job for 10 years. I think she’s at Dickson’s Farmstand in Chelsea Market.
I thought the al pastor must be pork and chicken (of course). The kebab shops do chicken here, though lamb is their main business. It can be hard to find breast of lamb, because most of it is used in the kebab industry 🙂
Oh how cool about your butcher. I love that. And also, I have to visit your friend at the market. What a cool thing to do. So interesting. I have to go there anyway to sharpen my chef’s knife, which is why I ended up pulling out my mandolin in the first place. It’s a weapon!
Here’s Lena – I think she’s still working there:
http://www.dicksonsfarmstand.com/products/whole-lamb-butchery-with-lena
It looks like she’s head butcher at the Greene Grape now:
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20141223/fort-greene/watch-fort-greene-butcher-turns-meat-fat-into-soap-scented-candles
That is amazing. Brooklyn is pretty selective when it comes to butchers. What a cool chick! I’ll have to visit her.
That will surprise her! She’s very cool, she had to talk the first butcher into training her.
Gorgeous post. You are so right about freshly picked corn and that sweetness which starts to disappear as soon as it’s picked. And the mandolin savagery…a true cooks war wound (along with the burn scars on the soft flesh of the wrists). Sometimes I wonder how stupid it was trying to get that last slice of potato!!! My friend, Lyn calls hers the ‘Mangle Lyn’. Cheers.
Thank you, Anna! LOL re mangle lyn. I either have to get a glove or bet a better gripping safety. I’ve joined the ranks I guess. As for fresh corn, I just love it. It reminds me of summer and barbecues and sun and everything wonderful. xo!
Amanda! I love this post. I have a recipe just like this on my Pinterest board and cannot wait to try this! And that pink wall in the last picture is stunning. I would love a pink walked house!
Thank you, Chaya. Pinterest is such a huge inspiration for me. I love the pink wall too. It’s in Puebla, Mexico. They have such a beautiful colonial architecture and the food is some of the best in Mexico outside of Oaxaca. Amazing. I could do ONE really bright wall in my house, but maybe not the entire house. 🙂
I always love simple food that needs less fuss. I agree with you…the faster food reaches our mouth from the farm, the better it tastes. These gorgeous photos remind me of all the street spots I have eaten corn. I guess, the corn you had in Mexico was the sturdy muscled variety and not the soft sweet relative!
I totally agree with you. I really love street corn and the fresher the better. Very good point, the corn in Mexico was a little less sweet. It works so well with the butter and spice. Thanks as always for stopping by. xo
Beautiful post as always Amanda 🙂 The recipe looks delicious and I like the addition of cumin in your recipe. Have a great weekend!
Thank you! I always appreciate your thoughtful comments and i love seeing you on instagram! You’re so talented!
Oh how I love elotes. And all your pictures of Mexico. Sorry about the mandolin accident, though. Steve has done it several times. I’m so terrified of the thing that I don’t do anything but fennel (with its built-in handle) without the guard on. Clearly, I’ll never be a real chef. 😉
I love that you love elotes too. And thanks for following my Mexico pics. I’ve been loving your pics all over instagram. I feel like you’re on my adventures with me and that’s been so meaningful. I’m scared of the mandolin now, but I’m almost so mad at it that I’m going to figure out how to use it. I’ll either get a glove or get one with a better safety grip. Mine doesn’t grip. How do you do a radish? Theyre so tiny. But this thing is clearly a death trap. I’m looking forward to your spring recipes. xo You’re a real chef in my book. Screw the mandolin 🙂
You’re a dear! As for radishes and most everything else, I’m old school. A sharp knife. It has its own dangers, but not so many as the mandolin!
What beautiful corn! Glad you had a wonderful trip. Will have to try this warmer season 🙂
Thank you, Mary Francis. You will like these!
Amazing photos–now THAT is how you eat corn-on-the-cob 🙂 How lucky you are to experience another culture like this!
Thanks, Liz. The corn is fabulous and i have to remember what a wonderful opportunity this has been because sometimes i just get tired. But now is the time if ever. Xo
Hmmm… for some reason WP just started holding your comments – did you change hosts? – and I just saw this. Thanks for the generous assessment of our rabbit. It was a bit more arduous to make and photograph than we anticipated, but worth it, I think. This is one of my favorite ways of eating corn – mayo! Try grilling the corn in the husks sometime, I think you’ll like it. Great waterside grilling operation. Ken
I did change hosts, but a while ago. Thanks, Ken. They grill them in the husks at the street fairs here in nyc but at home we just used foil growing up. I love it all ways. So great to see you here as always.
I wish you could get corn in Sydney that was like this! Looks so juicy and addictive. Your photos are stunning.
Thank you! One of the things i learned since starting this page is that produce is far from uniform around the world. It’s amazing. Xo
You grew up in corn fields? I think they are gorgeous! Is there horchata in Mexico too??
I did grow up in cornfields in upstate New York. It is so beautiful. My roots are in Brooklyn, but I was raised upstate on a farm. So funny. And yes! Re Mexican horchow. The difference is that they make it with rice. It seems a little sweeter with the rice flavor. All forms of horchata are good !
Love this recipe, yum!! Your photography skills are amazing. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much. I love street corn like this too. As for photography, I’m still learning with each shot. xo