Saturday, January 5, 2013

Roasted Mexican Corn and a New Year's Resolution

I'm not a big on resolutions.

I can't remember any of the resolutions I've made before.


That said, I do have a resolution for 2013: Cut dairy products out of all my savory cooking.

I can't do it when it comes to sweet cooking. I had chocolate mousse at midnight on New Year's, and I loved it. It was filled with heavy cream. It was heavenly. So I'm keeping dairy there.

I'm already meat-free, which I figure makes me challenging enough for friends willing to have me over for dinner, so I'm keeping dairy in my diet when I eat at friends' houses. We'll see when it comes to going out for dinner. I'll try to avoid cheese-laden dishes at restaurants, but I'm not going to drive myself crazy.

With that in mind, the savory recipes you see posted here coming up should be a little different. No cheese, no milk, no butter.

Still delicious.


For a food blogger, changing something in your diet forces you to cook all new recipes. I can't fall back on all my old cheese-filled favorites. Hopefully it will lead to lots of variety and new recipes up here.

I'm five days in and still sticking to my goal! Thursday I hosted my first small dinner party since deciding to cook dairy-free, and I went with a Mexican theme. This roasted Mexican corn dish was our side for the meal. It's adapted from a recipe for elotes, that delicious, creamy, mayonnaise and cheese-filled corn dish, that's one of my favorite Mexican dishes.

This adaptation felt light and fresh. I could go back for seconds without a touch of guilt.


Roasted Mexican Corn
recipe adapted from Serious Eats

This recipe makes a fantastic side dish for a Mexican dinner. It's also great as a topping for tostadas and tacos or as a light salsa for chips. You could add it to a soup, or just snack on it in between meals.

2 cans sweet corn (feel free to substitute 3 cups fresh corn, approximately four ears!)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper to taste

In a cast iron pan over high heat, heat two tablespoons of canola oil. When the oil is hot, add the drained sweet corn in a flat layer. Cook the corn undisturbed for 3 minutes, then stir quickly and leave for another 2 minutes. Continue stirring the corn every 2 minutes for about 10 minutes, until the corn well charred.

While the corn is cooking, prepare additional ingredients (jalapeno, shallot, garlic, cilantro and lime juice), and combine the ingredients in a small bowl.

Add the charred corn to the bowl of additional ingredients and stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

4 comments:

  1. Good luck with your goal! I love that you are still keeping it in your baking.

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    1. Thank you! I think I have to keep it in the baking. I look at vegan baking recipes and I'm so impressed by what people create, but I'm not quite ready to take it on myself!

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  2. Hi there. Food on Friday: Corn on Carole's Chatter is now open for entries. This looks like a good one! I do hope you link it in. This is the link . Please do pop back to check out some of the other links. Have a great week.

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  3. Katie, thank you for linking this in to Food on Friday. We are now getting a great collection of dishes using corn together. I hope you have stopped by some of the other links to check them out!

    Ps I have just signed up to follow your blog. A follow back to Carole's Chatter would be wonderful – or have you already followed? Cheers

    Ps If you would like email reminders of future Food on Fridays, just pop by and comment and include your email - I won't publish it - and the reminder will be by bcc so it will remain private

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