Mexican · Side · From the menu Brasa
Grilled corn, chilli and lime
Maíz a la brasa, guindilla, lima
Corn charred directly on the coals, rolled in chilli-lime butter and finished with salty cheese. The cheapest thing on the Brasa menu and usually the first to go.
Boiling corn before grilling is a habit worth dropping. Straight on the coals, the sugars caramelise and some kernels blacken, and that bitterness against the lime is the entire point. Buy the freshest corn you can find, because the sugar starts turning to starch the day it is picked.
Ingredients
- 6 corn cobs, husks removed
- 150 g soft butter
- 1 tsp chilli flakes and 1 tsp smoked paprika
- Zest of 2 limes, plus wedges to serve
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 80 g hard salty cheese, grated: queso majorero, manchego or feta
- Coriander, flaked salt
Method
- Beat the butter with the chilli, paprika, lime zest, garlic and a good pinch of salt. Leave it somewhere warm enough to stay soft.
- Get the coals to a medium heat with no flames. Flames will blacken the outside while the inside is still hard.
- Put the cobs straight on the bars and cook 12 to 15 minutes, turning every two or three minutes, until the kernels are golden with properly black patches in places.
- While they are still too hot to hold, roll each one in the flavoured butter until coated.
- Scatter the grated cheese over so it sticks to the butter, then coriander and flaked salt.
- Serve with lime wedges and something to hold them with, because nobody waits for them to cool.
Serve it with. Everything else on the Brasa menu.