Simplified Mexican Street Corn

When I visit my parents during the summer, no meal is complete without corn on the cob. Preparing it is a chance to sit and catch up with siblings or other relatives as we wrench the husks off the corn and then carefully pluck away the remaining silk. It feels like a throwback to yesteryear and the days of shelling peas, or pitting quart upon quart of cherries to “put up” and use for future cherry pies.

We eat our corn on the cob at the picnic table on my parents’ porch. The visitors get seated where they can enjoy the view, looking out across the valley or spotting the ruby-throated hummingbirds jousting as they battle for the sugar-water in my mother’s bird feeders. The corn is sweet, crunchy, and tastes buttery even if I don’t add butter.

What could be better on a summer evening?

It seems heretical to suggest eating corn on the cob any other way than with a dab of butter and a sprinkle of salt. But I am not always as good at cooking corn on the cob the same day I purchase it as my mom is. And after corn on the cob has been around for a while, it is not as sweet. As Jill Ahern puts it, “With every day that passes after harvest, more and more of corn’s natural sugars change to starch. That’s why the corn we sell is fresh picked every day from local family farms!”

It makes sense, then, to plan it into the day’s menu as soon as its purchased. But if it looks so good at the market you just have to buy it…. and then you forget to use it right away, like I sometimes do, try this recipe. This Simplified Mexican Street Corn calls for six ears of corn, and only two other ingredients! But it’s full of flavor because it uses Cherchies Chardonnay Lime & Cilantro Seasoning, available at Wolff’s.

I recommend making corn on the cob using the methods the Wolff family uses, and then making this street corn!

Photos and recipe by Rachel VanDuzer.