You know how sometimes you visit a place and it's totally different to what you expected? And then other times you visit a place and it is 100% exactly as you expected it to be, just like you have seen in the movies and your imagination a dozen times.
The latter is true of the American Midwest. Drive out of the cities and soon you are surrounded by red wooden barns and the amber waves of corn that stretch from sea to shining sea, as described in America the Beautiful. It's mesmerisingly lovely and reminded me that I have yet to post the delicious roasted corn that I made for lunch about six weeks ago. I had seen a couple of recipes for roasted corn here and there on the blogs and when I popped into Borough market and saw these gorgeous fresh ears of corn still nestled in their leaves and silks, I was powerless to resist.
As a kid, we'd often have corn (or mealies, as they are known in South Africa). I used to love eating it straight off the cob, with those little 2-prong forks poked in either end to hold it without burning your hands. But at some point I decided that this was just tooooo messy and developed the habit of standing the cob upright and slicing the kernels off with a sharp knife, before buttering and eating them. Tasty - yes. But somehow lackign in the magic of eating it with your hands.
So when I started seeing recipes pop up all over the web for roasted corn, I decided to give it a go and relive my childhood... albeit with the more grown-up flavours of chilli and lime! The recipe comes from one of my favourite discoveries of the past year, Dragon's Kitchen
ROASTED CORN WITH A LIME & CHILLI BUTTER
Ingredients:
4 ears of corn still in their husks
1/4 cup butter, softened
zest of one lime
juice of half a lime
1/4 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon chili powder (I used Lawry's red pepper seasoned salt with Tabasco instead)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the corn, husks and all, on a baking sheet in the centre of the oven. Cook for 35-40 minutes.
While the corn is roasting, make the chilli butter. Combine the rest of the ingredients and mix until well blended. Refrigerate the softened butter mixture until the corn is roasted.
Carefully (they are HOT!) remove the husks and silk off the corn and serve immediately with the butter. Feel like a kid again!
Other bloggers roasting or grilling their corn:
Anne made fire-roasted corn salsa with feta cheese
Elise made a grilled corn salad
That does look good. I love roasted corn. Have to try this chili lime butter.
Posted by: courtncey | October 29, 2008 at 07:34 PM
YUM O YUM - Lime chilli butter! Looks delish.
Posted by: Jan | October 29, 2008 at 09:12 PM
You are one of my favourite discoveries too. :) Your corn looks wonderful.
Posted by: Dragon | October 30, 2008 at 12:08 AM
Quality pics!
Posted by: Nick | October 30, 2008 at 02:27 AM
That looks seriously delish! I had no idea that you could roast the mielies just like that in the oven - I'm definitely going to try that :-)
Posted by: gill | October 30, 2008 at 07:06 AM
Mealies, Butter and chilli - Three times as yummy!
Posted by: Rosemary | October 30, 2008 at 09:13 AM
roasted corn doesn't need much help to be delicious, but your additions are stellar and your pictures make me sigh with delight. :)
Posted by: grace | October 30, 2008 at 01:47 PM
There really is no other way to eat corn other than this way!! It is the best combination I have had on corn... So yummy!!!
Posted by: Cathy-wheresmydamnanswer | October 30, 2008 at 02:36 PM
what glorious pictures! and mmmh... what's better than corn with chilli butter? can't beat it!
Posted by: johanna | October 30, 2008 at 08:43 PM
This is a genial - what an amazing idea. Heheh - and it's almost summer here ;)
Posted by: Jacoba | October 30, 2008 at 10:28 PM
I'm loving this combo - this is looking great!
-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com
Posted by: Darius T. Williams | October 30, 2008 at 11:04 PM
Love the pictures. Looks great!
Posted by: Lauren O. | October 31, 2008 at 12:32 AM
Oh I'd love to be a kid again...& with this. Totally YUM! Saw it at Dragon's too!
Posted by: Deeba | October 31, 2008 at 08:20 AM
This is my favorite comfort food in summer. In Hermanus, my dad always has a pot of these on the fire, while he is braaing!Delicious!!!
Posted by: nina | October 31, 2008 at 04:12 PM
YUM my favourite way to eat mielies!!! Your photos look magnificent Jeanne have a great weekend xxx
Posted by: Browniegirl | November 01, 2008 at 06:48 AM
I do mine with butter like this - delicious. Your photos are gorgeous!
Posted by: Nicisme | November 02, 2008 at 03:41 PM
I adore roasted corn. And we roast it directly on the grill, husked. It gets beautifully caramelized. Of course, it's fabulous with butter, salt and pepper. But we also like to rub a half a lime in salt and garam masala then rub the hot roasted corn.
Roasting extra corncobs is good too so that the niblets can be cut off and frozen for later: to put into black bean soup when the winter winds are howling.
Posted by: Elizabeth | November 05, 2008 at 05:37 AM
Reading this before breakfast has made me famished! I haven't had fresh, fresh corn in years---it is always faintly disappointing by the time it gets to the supermarket. And the addition of lime and chilli... gorgeous! Why don't more people do flavoured butters, I wonder?
Posted by: Angela | November 28, 2008 at 09:13 AM
Great recipe! If you happen to attend the South Florida Fair this year (January 9th - February 1st) please stop by our concession stand: Shukkers. We serve Hot Roasted Corn, and will be using this recipe.
Great post Jeanne!
Posted by: Michael | December 12, 2008 at 08:06 PM