Mexican-ish Grilled Corn with Sriracha, Lime & Honey Mayo

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you already know about my love for grilled corn. It's hard not to love something that is that good and that easy. But if my usual grilled corn goes to ten, this one goes to eleven...

This is a riff on elote, the traditional Mexican street corn. Elote is sweet corn that is grilled in the husk, then the husk is peeled back to serve as a kind of handle and the corn is slathered in a creamy, chili-lime sauce and rolled in salty cheese. (By the way, Kenji over at Serious Eats has a great recipe for elote if you want to try it.)

But elote is kind of a lot of work, in my (lazy-assed) opinion. So I was mighty intrigued when my aunt Katy came up with this wonderful variation that has a lot of the same great flavors but happens to be a lot less labor-intensive than true elote.

You start with however many ears of sweet corn you want - the freshest you can get. And it's the time of year when you can get it really fresh from a farmer near you so there's no reason not to.

Husk the ears and rub them with olive oil and toss them on the grill for a few minutes, turning regularly to get an even, light char on all sides.

Then it's time to make yer sauce. Get out the mayonnaise, sriracha, lime and honey.

Zest that lime. Then juice it. In that order. I had a brain fart and forgot to zest it before I cut it in half and started juicing it - definitely harder to get that skin off at that point.  :(

Mix in the mayo, sriracha, and honey and a pinch of salt and stir until smooth. Then slather it all over the corn. Don't be shy.

Then sprinkle cheese all over it!

Take a bite. The creamy mayo, zesty lime, sweet honey, spicy sriracha and salty cheese take the sweet, slightly nutty, lightly charred, juicy corn kernels to a whole new level.

If you have any sriracha lime honey mayo sauce leftover, it's great with shrimp or chicken if you wanted to make a salad or use it as a dipping sauce.

-- print recipe --Mexican-ish Grilled Corn with Sriracha, Lime, Honey Mayonnaise
Serves 4

Ingredients

* 4 ears of sweet corn, husked
* 2 tsps olive oil
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* A generous squirt of sriracha - probably around 1 tsp but taste the sauce and add more if you like things spicier
* Zest & juice of one organic lime
* 1 tsp honey
* Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
* 1/2 cup grated cotija cheese (though you can also use grated Parmesan or Romano if you can't find cotija)

Directions

1. Preheat and clean your grill. You want a medium heat. While it's heating, rub the ears of corn with olive oil, then sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2. Place the ears on the grill and cook, turning with tongs every 2 minutes or so, to ensure even cooking on all sides, until lightly browned. Remove from the grill and mix up your sauce by combining the mayo, sriracha, honey, lime juice and zest and salt and pepper. Take a taste and adjust, as needed, until you're happy with the flavors.

3. Slather the corn with the sriracha mayonnaise then sprinkle it all over with the grated cheese before serving.

You might also like:

• Savory Corn Fritters
• Quinoa, Sweet Corn, Lime & Jalapeño Salad
• Tomato Corn Pie with Butter-Brushed Biscuit Topping

For more tasty, seasonal recipes, foraging ideas, gardening tips, restaurant reviews, and food-related inspiration, "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Garden Salad with Purslane, Cucumber, Tomatoes & Basil

I had one hell of a garden salad for lunch the other day and putting it together was almost as much fun as eating it. The succulent, lemony purslane, the clean, crunchy freshness of the cucumber, little juicy bites of concentrated sweetness from the sungold tomatoes, the rich, creamy chevre, the crisp lettuce and over it all a simple vinaigrette made with olive oil and a simply amazing maple balsamic vinegar. It's a little embarrassing but I have to admit that I'm salivating just writing this.

I walked outside with my basket, opened the sagging gate that has miraculously managed to deter the hordes of voracious, wickedly cute bunnies that live in our yard, picked a few leaves of new lettuce, yanked a cucumber off its vine, coaxed a handful of Sungold tomatoes into my palm, and plucked a few basil leaves.

Then I looked between the rows for some purslane - a delicious, incredibly nutritious weed with succulent green leaves, reddish stems and a mild, pleasantly lemony flavor. You can read more about here in case you missed my last installment of Eat Your Weeds.

I brought it all inside, rinsed it off and laid it out on a kitchen towel to dry a bit. I paused to admire its beauty for a moment, then I took this photo so you could admire it, too.

Then I ripped up the lettuce and basil, cut up the tomatoes and sliced the cucumbers. The cucumber was so crunchy I practically needed earplugs while I was chewing.

I was thankful to have gotten to a few ripe tomatoes before the gangs of chipmunks who roam our yard had a chance. Most of the time, I'm too late and end up having to harvest these sadly mauled 'maters and cutting out the parts where they've been so cruelly bitten. Chipmunks are incredibly cute but I have the most intensely homicidal urges whenever I see one now.

I arranged the lettuce, basil, tomatoes, cucumbers and purslane then dropped some chunks of a soft, mild goat cheese on top of it all, sprinkled it with sea salt and did a few energetic grinds with the pepper mill. Then I drizzled it with organic olive oil and some of this amazing maple balsamic vinegar from The Tubby Olive that my mom-in-law gave us recently. It is so rich, so perfectly balanced, so flavorful that I kind of just want to guzzle it straight from the bottle.

I added a crunchy, savory rosemary and thyme olive oil torta (do you know about these tortas already? they are so good) to the plate, admired it some more and took a few more pictures. Then I sat down and devoured it all in a most unlady-like manner - lady-like has never really been my strong suit. I ended by picking the plate up and giving it the thorough licking it deserved. I am already looking forward to round two and hoping against hope that I can get to a few semi-ripe tomatoes before Alvin and the f-ing chipmunks do.

The dressing was so simple that I don't really think I can provide a recipe - just olive oil and vinegar (more or less equal parts) topped with a little sea salt and black pepper - taste it and adjust your ratios until you're happy.

You might also like:

• Quick & Cooling Asian-Inspired Cucumber Salad
• Citrus-Massaged Kale Salad with Dried Cherries & Toasted Almonds
• Chopped Summer Salad - Healthy, Fresh & Deeeeelicious!

For more delicious recipes, drool-worthy photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.

Eat Your Weeds - Purslane

If you garden at all, you're probably familiar with purslane since it's a pretty common weed. But that's just one way of looking at it. It does tend to grow all over but it's also downright tasty and ridonkulously good for you.

A succulent, low-growing plant, purslane has a mild lemony flavor with a hint of pepper and a pleasing texture that is half-chewy, half-crunchy. I like it so much that I actually planted it between the rows of my garden this summer.

Known as verdolaga in Spanish, semizotu in Turkish and pourpier potager in French, purslane is packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants and has the highest Omega-3 content of any leafy green. It's so full of goodness that Michael Pollan actually called it one of the two most nutritious foods on earth in his treatise, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Says Pollan, "Wild greens like purslane have substantially higher levels of Omega-3s than most domesticated plants." His other top pick is lamb's quarters, also considered a weed.

Best of all, it has a lovely taste and texture. I like to eat it in salads. Or if you feel like something even simpler, just slice up a ripe tomato, add some purslane and a little crumbled goat or feta cheese, drizzle with good olive oil and vinegar and add salt and pepper to taste. The sweet juicy tomato pairs so nicely with the crunchy, lemony purslane and the cheese adds a rich, creamy element that makes it even more addictive. MWAH - so good!

Purslane is very versatile - you can eat it pickled, in a chopped Middle Eastern salad, in a green salad, in tacos, with garlic, yogurt and salt, in potato salad, in a cucumber-yogurt salad, in a hearty lamb stew, in soup, and more.

To sum up, purslane is a wildly nutritious, tasty vegetable that grows like a weed. What's not to like?

You might also like:

• Eat Your Weeds - Wild Garlic
• Wild Raspberries, Invasive, Yes, But Mighty Tasty...
• On the Hunt for Wild Greens - Miner's Lettuce

For more delicious recipes, drool-worthy photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.