Heavenly Grilled Corn!

La Dilettante's Note:

My husband fired up the grill a few nights ago, and as always my job was to come up with a good vegetable or two. The Mississippi yellow corn looked so fresh and fat at the Farmer's Market that I decided to make up a recipe. Big success! We'll be having this often. The stripping of the husks and re-wrapping is a bit "fiddly," I admit, but the presentation is attractive, so worth doing if you are entertaining at a barbecue.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4

Yield: 4.0 ears

• 4 large ears fresh yellow sweet corn , with husks
• ¼ cup unsalted butter , melted
• 1 garlic clove , minced fine
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 grinds fresh black pepper
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil , minced (or 1 tsp dried, crushed)
• ½ teaspoon sugar

Directions:

1. Carefully strip husks and cornsilk from ears, discarding silk but keeping the husks as intact as possible. Rinse and put between 2 layers of paper towels to dry, pressing flat with a weight (heavy cookbook, iron pot, your husband's 9 remote controls:):) Meanwhile, put the nekkid ears in a pot of boiling water and boil for about 10-15 minutes. Drain and cool until easily handled. Mix all seasonings with the melted butter. (You can really add anything---I think mixed Italian herbs would be nice, or even a dash of curry to go with an Indian meal. Or heavy on the Cajun spices and more Tabasco for the stouthearted.).
2. Okay, here's the fun part (La D does so adore a craft activity.) Carefully wrap the ears back in the husks, and bind the covering with thin strips of the husk, tamale-style, tying securely. Place on tinfoil that has been pinched at the corners to form a basin, and pour the butter, etc., over all everything. Wrap in more foil to seal tightly, and place on the grill while any meats are cooking.
3. When meats are done, remove the foil and let the corn grill on the rack above the hot coals. The extra butter will drip down and cause a little conflagration, which will set the husks on fire (fun to watch!) and char the corn slightly. Remove almost instantly, get rid of the burned husks, grab the salt shaker, and enter Paradise!