SUPER SPICY CHARRED CORN
Charred corn is a simple yet smoky dish of whole cobs boiled and cooked over high heat until the outside is browned and slightly blackened, often finished with butter, lime or lemon, herbs, spices, cheese or sauces to boost the sweet, caramelised flavour. Its roots lie in traditional methods of grilling maize across the Americas particularly Mexican street food like elote (grilled corn on the cob slathered with mayo, cheese and chilli) and it was popularised globally by street vendors and restaurant chefs who embraced the bold char as a contrast to the corn’s natural sweetness, later spreading through food markets, cookbooks and social media to become a beloved, easy to make side or snack.
My take on it is super spicy with big hits of chilli, fresh coriander for freshness and finely micro planed feta cheese on top as a cooling addition to bring down the spicyness and offer some salty creaminess that ties it all together.
SUPER SPICY CHARRED CORN
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SUPER SPICY CHARRED CORN 〰️
Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4
4 corn cobs, peeled
4 garlic cloves, minced
80gm butter
1/2 long green chilli, finely diced
6 coriander stalks, leaves and stems washed & separated
1 lime
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tbl sp chilli oil
100gm feta
1 long red chilli, diagonally and thinly sliced
1 tbl sp aleppo chilli (chilli powder is also great)
Sea salt, to taste
Place pot of salted water on high heat and bring to rolling boil before adding corn cobs in and cooking for around 15 minutes, you want the corn cooked through but still bright in colour. Remove and pop onto small tray and take off excess water with a paper towel.
Turn oven on grill setting on highest temperature.
Finely dice the coriander stems and zest the lime before adding to bowl with butter, diced green chilli and pinch of sea salt. Using a fork bring together the flavour butter until properly mixed. Add butter to the tops of the corn and place under grill in oven.
Char corn hard, and keep basing herbed butter onto corn. Remove when you have a nice char.
To make spicy mayonnaise, add the chilli oil and mayonnaise together (adding more chilli if you like).
To plate add corn, pour excess melted flavour butter on top. Spoon the spicy mayonnaise on top, microplane heaps of feta all over before finishing with red chilli and Aleppo chill on top. Slice the zest lime into wedges and scatter on the side before finally adding the coriander leaves on top.