Serves 6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- One dozen ears of corn*
- Salt
- Pepper
- Grated Parmesan
- Crumbled Cotija Cheese**
- Butter
Directions
-
*Get the freshest corn available, preferably picked that day.
- The leaves should be bright green and feel moist to the touch, and when you sniff the corn silk it should smell sweet.
- I prefer ears that are smaller in circumference, as they are younger and tend to be more tender.
-
**This is a hard Mexican cheese that can be crumbled into a wide-holed pepper shaker.
- Ideally, the corn will be plucked straight out of the steaming pot and the cheese sprinkled on it, so that it melts a bit on the cob of corn.
-
For a dozen ears I put out two sticks of butter and tell guests to simply rub the corn over the sticks of butter before adding other seasonings.
- If you’re serving a big crowd, melt the butter in a pan with sides tall enough to allow a cob of corn to be dipped into the pot.
-
Slip corn into boiling water; cook for seven to ten minutes, depending on the size of the ears of corn.
- Serve immediately.
Corn picks are nice to have, but unless you’re eating in a more formal setting I prefer to do without them. They tend to get thrown away by mistake, and hey, corn on the cob is a naturally messy food. Part of the fun of eating it is having a devil-may-care attitude about the mess.
