It's hard to think of a more-perfect combination of summer flavors: Crisp, charred sweet corn. Creamy mayonnaise. Salty cheese. Spicy chilies. Acidic lime juice.
It's a flavor combination well-loved in Mexico and in big cities in the United States, where it's known as Mexican street corn, aka elotes.
"Anybody who's ever had American-style creamed corn or corn chowder knows why the combination of cream and corn is so good," says Rick Bayless, chef and co-owner of several Chicago Mexican restaurants, including Frontera Grill and Cruz Blanca. "Add the umami punch of salty, aged cheese and chili with a little salt, and you have everything _ tangy, salty, sweet and umami. If you're grilling the corn, you'll get some char, and then you'll have bitter too. So, you'll have all of the classic flavor profiles."
At modern Mexican restaurant Cantina 1910 in Chicago, executive chef Scott Shulman offers up a classic riff on elotes known as esquites, which is essentially Mexican sweet corn but in salad form.
"It's a classic flavor," Shulman says. "In America, we're very used to it. It translates to our flavor memory."
Shulman likes to use the freshest-possible corn and homemade mayonnaise in his salad. The restaurant uses a brown butter-mayonnaise, along with corn broth, hominy, dehydrated lime, Morita peppers, cilantro and epazote. Later this summer, Shulman plans to lighten the dish a bit using queso fresco and a bruleed corn meringue.
The wonderful thing about this flavor combination is that it's so versatile. It can be played up in salads, corn puddings, macaroni and cheese _ even in frozen pops.
"It definitely says summer," Shulman says.
It's easy to create a nondairy, vegan version as well. Wes Allison, Austin, Texas-based co-author of the tongue-in-cheek "The Taco Cleanse: The Tortilla-Based Diet Proven to Change Your Life," created an elotes taco filling for the book that uses no animal products.
Allison makes his own vegan mayonnaise but says there are many good options on store shelves. He uses nutritional yeast for the savory, cheesy flavor. And he likes to wrap the corn filling in a corn tortilla, but says it also works well in a pasta salad or simply on its own as esquites.
"It's a great summertime side dish to go with grilling and barbecuing," Allison says.
Tania Merlos-Ruiz, owner and chef at Tomate Fresh Kitchen in Evanston, Ill., grew up eating lots of corn in Guatemala but hadn't tried Mexican street corn until she moved to Chicago. At her restaurant, she likes to add a spicy, creamy corn filling to her empanadas, tamales and chicken tacos with grilled onions.
"It adds sweetness," Merlos-Ruiz says. "I love the pop of color in there."
