Thursday, August 2, 2012

Roasted Corn with Flavored Butter

Mr. Wendy and I hit the farmers' market this week ... I had my eyes open for local honey and good-looking tomatoes, but we got there fairly late and neither were to be found.  We did, however, make off with some fresh peaches, new potatoes, a deeply fragrant cantaloupe (a Texas delicacy), and four plump ears of sweet corn.

The peaches went on the counter, for easy, casual snacking.

The cantaloupe was cut up for breakfast feasting.

The new potatoes were earmarked for a Moroccan lentil stew (coming soon).

And the sweet corn, well, it needed eating right away.  Thankfully, I have a go-to recipe for sweet corn that dresses it up just enough to make corn and veggie burgers a real treat of a meal but keeps the cooking simple enough for summer fare.

For the corn, whack off the silks and the long part of the stalk but leaving the husks on.  Bake in a 350 oven for 35 minutes.  Carefully remove from oven and (holding the cobs with a towel) remove the husks.  Again, be very, very careful, as the corn has been steaming in its husk and the steam that is released is really hot.  This method is so no-fuss, no-muss you won't believe it.  It leaves the corn tender like boiling but without the loss of flavor, and after steaming the silks slide right off the cobs making husking/cleaning a lot easier.



For the butter, blend half a stick of softened butter with 1 tsp. of your favorite spice blend.  Tyler Florence recommends half a stick of butter with 1 tsp. chili powder and the zest of half a lime.  I recommend half a stick of butter with 1 tsp. of Penzey's Northwoods seasoning blend.



What would you recommend?  Got a favorite seasoning blend that would be killer on an ear of sweet corn?

7 comments:

  1. I love sweet corn..I would use Penzey's Black and Red spice. I love that spice

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  2. We love cilantro lime butter, and when we're pairing corn with steaks, we always have blue cheese butter for the steaks that somehow makes it onto the ears of corn as well - YUM!

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  3. I've never thought of roasting corn in the husks in the oven like that. I really like the idea of the silks coming off when you husk it after cooking. If it's summer, I don't usually like any extra seasoning on fresh corn except a little salt and maybe sour cream instead of butter, but we do eat at a little Cajun/Vietnamese seafood place that puts cajun seasoning on their corn and it is really tasty.

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  4. Black and red spice? I'll have to try it. I'm addicted to their Northwoods spice!

    This is how I make corn on the grill. I just close the top. It never crossed my mind to do it inside! What a great idea!

    ~ Krista

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  5. Oh - I have a jar of cajun rub (also Penzey's). Never tried their Black and Red ... will have to investigate. And cilantro/lime sounds brilliant!

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