Elote

By Hilda Joy
From the archives 8/19/2022

Our very American Fourth of July culinary celebration can be enhanced by reaching across our Southern border to our Mexican neighbors and borrowing one of their well-known street foods, Eliote, but adapting it to please several people.  After all, we corn-consuming Americans owe Mexico thanks for its agricultural gift of maize.  The word ‘Elote’ derives from ‘Elotl,’ a Nahuatl word meaning ‘corn on the cob’ or ‘tender cob.’

Having grown up in Chicago with its large Mexican population, I learned to appreciate Mexican food at an early age.  The first Mexican food I ate as a child was a tamale sold by a street vendor in our neighborhood.  This inauthentic treat, wrapped in paper rather than in a corn husk, acquainted me with masa and a spicy filling and gave me a life-long taste for Mexican food.  I did not know about Elote until much later in life when I was strolling along one of Chicago’s beautiful Lake Michigan beachfronts and getting hungry.  I bought a cob of Elote and fell in love with it and am still smitten by it.

You might not find an Elotero from whom you can buy a single cob on the street, but you can easily grill this dish in a quantity to feed your family and/or friends.
EnJOY

​Elote is a popular Mexican corn street food eaten as a single serving sometimes on a stick but most usually simply by holding it by its stem under the shuck of green leaves left on the ear.  This recipe retains the classic ingredients but serves as a side dish during grilling season.

Ingredients
6 ears sweet corn
Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4  cup Mexican crema
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 cup cotija cheese or queso fresco
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
lime wedges

• Shuck ears of corn, but leave green leaves attached and folded down. 
• Remove corn silk.
• Oil grill with vegetable oil and preheat it to ‘medium.’  Grill corn for about ten minutes, turning ears often until a medium char is developed over all.  
• Remove from grill.
• Brush ears with mayonnaise and then Mexican crema.
• Sprinkle with chili powder and then cotija cheese.
• Top with cilantro.
• Serve corn warm after squeezing ears with lime juice.
• Eat corn holding it by its stem.