Saturday, March 13, 2010

Licking fingers

The sweetcorn is almost the last man standing in the garden at the moment and for the first time in years we have a successful crop. The scorching Indian summer has seen almost every other vegetable bolt to seed, succumb to mildew or dry to a crispy brown. The farmers' Market today was a little quiet in the variety of vegetables but there was plenty of corn. I had been looking for inspiration for a barbeque and seeing the great green stacks reminded me of a recipe...

Smokey Corn Cobs

6 cobs of corn - must have the whole cob, preferably with a 'handle' for easy eating.


100gms salted butter, softened



4 tsp smoked paprika, Spanish if you can get it

4 drops of Tabasco

4 tsp light brown sugar


Blend the butter, paprika, Tabasco and sugar until you have a rich smooth orange spread.
Peel back the outer leaves of the corn, working around the corn until the cob is exposed and remove the corn silk.
Generously spread the cob with the butter mix. It should fall into the spaces between the individual corn seeds.
Begin to re wrap the corn in its husk, again working around the cob and smoothing over the butter.
Make sure that you have at least two layers covering the butter and then remove any green husks you didn't need.
Tear a strip from top to bottom from one of the discarded husks, about 2 cm wide and tie at the top of the cob. Trim the ends of the tie.
Continue with the rest of the corn.
Place the corn in the refrigerator until needed.


To cook, place on a hot barbeque grill, turning so it is evenly browned. You can also microwave the cobs but they tend to steam rather than roasting and you don't get the additional smoky flavour.

Let each person 'peel' their own cob to enjoy the caramelised spicy sugar and dripping melted butter.
Any extra butter can be served with the corn. Provide lots of serviettes, there will be plenty of sticky fingers!



Any extra corn husks can be dried and stored. Soak for an hour in warm water to revive and use them as a wrapper for tamales or any other steamed morsels.


Enjoy,

nirala

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