Esquites, otherwise known as Mexican Corn Salad

By janicecraig

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 ears corn (or 4.5 - 5 cups corn)
• 1 garlic clove
• 1-3 Serrano pepper
• 2 oz (1/4 cup) crumbled Cotija cheese
• 2 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• juice from 1 lime
• zest from 1 lime
• plus additional salt and pepper to taste

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 10mins
Adapted from eatthelove.com

Preparation

Step 1

This easy and tasty corn salad is basically Mexican grilled corn (elote) turned into a side dish. It relies on only a few ingredients but it’s packed full of flavor. I like to grill the corn, to give the dish a tinge of smoke but if you don’t have a grill, just use the broiler instead, placing the corn under the broiler for 5 minutes initially, or until it starts to char and then rotating the corn 90˚ and letting the other sides of the corn char in 2-3 minutes. Cotija, by the way, is a hard cow milk Mexican cheese that can be found in most grocery stores, but if you can’t find it, feta will work in it’s place.

Directions

1. Turn your grill on high heat. While it heats up, husk the ears of corn and brush the oil onto them. Place the corn on the hot grill and let sit on the grill until the bottom side starts to char and then rotate the corn 90˚. Repeat until the entire ear of corn is charred, about 10 minutes on the grill. Remove and let cool. If you don’t have a grill, see the headnote above about using the broiler.

2. While the corn is cooling, finely mince the garlic (or force the garlic through a garlic press) and place in a large bowl. Finely dice the Serrano pepper, leaving in the inside members and seeds if you like your food spicy hot and place in the bowl with the garlic. Add the cilantro to the bowl. Crumble the Cotjia cheese and add the mayonnaise, chili powder, paprika, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper in the bowl. Add the juice and zest of the lime to the bowl.

3. Once the corn has cooled enough to handle, cut the corn off the cob and add it to the bowl. Mix until all the ingredients are evenly distributed then taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and pepper if necessary.

Makes enough for 4 to 6 people as a side dish