Esquites!

Hello, new readers!  (And hello to Stacey, Ara and Erin who I know have been reading for awhile!)  This week Nick and Will put the URL for this blog in the CSA note we get each week, so I thought I might have a few folks drop by to check it out.  If you're new here, I hope you find something useful to you.  I started this blog during summer 2019 because I thought it might be fun to track what I did with every single item in each weeks' CSA box, but that got to be a little much (really, you don't need to see every salad I eat).  What it has been good for, though is a place for me to keep track of new recipes I make with items from the CSA that I think are worth repeating and that others might be interested in.  Having that record helps me remember what I've made that turned out well, and also provides a good place to make a note of any changes I've made or pitfalls I ran into.

This past week I made esquites, which is a Mexican corn salad.  Even if we're not growing it at the Guilford College Farm, I do love corn season, and I could eat it on the cob every day.  Last week I had a version of this at a my friend Marlene's house and she rightfully pointed out that it was a lot easier to handle if you're serving a lot of folks than corn on the cob.  Or, I realized, if you're eating dinner on the sofa while watching TV (by the way, go check out Derry Girls on Netflix, it's hilarious!).

I found this recipe for esquites by Kenji Lopez-Alt on Serious Eats and adapted it a bit.

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh corn kernels (about 4-5 ears, I used bicolor corn from Rudd Farm at the Curb Market)
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• Kosher salt
• 2 tbs low fat mayonaise (Hellmans)
• 2 oz Cotija cheese, grated 
• 1/4 cup chopped chives (I didn't have scallions!)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 jalepeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped <----THERE it is, the lone CSA ingredient!
• 1 clove garlic, grated on a Microplane (oh, wait, that's from the CSA too)
• 1 tbs fresh lime juice
•  sprinkle of chili powder to taste

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet of dutch oven (I used the latter) over high  heat.   Add corn kernels, season w/ salt to taste, and stir and toss occasionally (about 3-4 minutes) until corn is cooked and hopefully some of it is lightly browned.  Transfer to a large bowl. 
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the corn and stir to combine.  Adjust seasoning to taste.

Some pics!

Taking the corn off the cob (the bundt pan does a great job of holding the cob steady and catching the corn).

Mixing it up

Plated up w/ a BLT made with tomatoes from the CSA,  Marlene's homemade sourdough and our homemade bacon!

A nice change of pace from corn on the cob.