Mexican Street Corn

TxGriffLover's Note:

In Mexico, street vendors sell corn on the cob from carts like vendors in the U.S. sell hot dogs. The corn is served coated with either melted butter, chili powder and lime juice, or a creamy cheesy mixture consisting of a crema (a tangy cultured sour cream) or maynnaise mixed with chili powder and garlic. The mixture is slathered over the corn and then sprinkled with a crumbly Mexican cheese such as queso anejo or queso fresco. This recipe came from "The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2009" If possible, leave the stalks on the corn attached; they make nice handles when cooking and eating. Edited on 4-14-09...The last time we prepared this recipe, we used our stove top smoker and smoked the corn for about 25 minutes, then finished them off in the broiler with the mayo/cheese mixture. If you have a stove top smoker, this is definitely the way to go, the corn was amazing!

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 6 large ears of corn, husks and silks removed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• salt
• 1 ounce queso fresco (about 1/4 cup) or 1 ounce farmer's cheese (about 1/4 cup) or 1 ounce feta, crumbled (about 1/4 cup)
• pepper
• 1 lime, cut into wedges for serving

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to 5 inches from the broiler element and heat the broiler. Brush the corn on all sides with the olive oil and transfer to a foil lined baking sheet.
2. Broil the corn until well-browned on one side, about 10 minutes. Turn the corn over and broil until browned on the opposite side, about 10 minutes longer.
3. While the corn broils, stir the mayo, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, chili powder, and 1/4 tsp salt together until uniform. Stir in the cheese and set aside.
4. Remove the corn from the oven and brush the corn on all sides with the mayo mixture.
5. Return to the broiler and broil the coated corn until the cheese coating is warm and slightly brown on top, about 1 minute.
6. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Serve with the lime wedges.
7. and any remaining mayo mixture.

Reviews

[Chef GreanEyes]

Pretty nummy!! made plain ol buttered sweet corn verrryyy savory. thanks!!!

[Newmsy]

Sooooooooooo freakin' good! There. That's all you need to know; just make the recipe.

[Camel_Cracker]

This was great... a real taste of Mexico. I mostly followed the directions for roasting the corn, because at 28 years of age, this was my first time to cook fresh corn... a little embarrassing, but true. I pulled back the husks, removed the silks, misted the ears with EVOO, then recovered the ears and roasted them for 10 minutes on each side like you suggest. I then brushed them with margarine and chipotle mayo, then sprinkled them with crumbled queso fresco, drizzled them with Valentino hot sauce (very authentic) and squeezed lime over them. DH had never eaten this before and was sceptical, so only wanted a little bit of everything on his... fishished his before I finished mine, then took a bite of what I had left and said, "HEY!!! That's really good, why didn't you make mine like that?" :)) I just laughed at him. Thanks for giving me the confidence to cook my own corn, I may never use frozen again.