Grilled Corn with Avocado Butter, Grilled Limes and Aleppo Chili

Jersey Fresh produce, homegrown sweet corn, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, green beans are bountiful and glorious. I have to find new ways to take advantage of the summer harvest, especially the sweet corn. I love the sweetness of corn but not the starchiness when corn has sat around for a while too long. Getting fresh corn directly from local farm stands may be the key first step.

It’s easy to boil corn, but grilling corn takes it to a whole new level. When the grill is on or easily accessible, ten minutes on a hot grill is all the corn needs to get tender and slightly charred. The smoky flavor adds another dimension to the corn. Sometimes I’d specifically look for frozen grilled corn because I like the flavor. Here is a way to freeze away a beloved summer flavor from the grill.

The somewhat healthy-ish avocado butter may have found the perfect tone — to balance the richness of butter while offering a greener veggie tenor. This is a keeper even when corn is not in season. The avocado butter can be made ahead; feel free to make more if you like. Any compound butter made with avocado is an amazing gift. Smear it on everything: toasts, veggies or even protein mains.

Start with a very ripe avocado. Combine it with butter (4 tablespoons), zest and juice of one to two limes. Blitz in the food processor until smooth and light and creamy. I don’t mind the acidity of lime. In fact, I prefer to load up on the lime flavor. Add a little salt and test for the correct balance of avocado butter to your taste. Then refrigerate for 10 minutes. Guess what, my husband takes a big spoon and eat it by the spoonful, straight up!

There is more creaminess to the party other than the avocado butter and the creamy corn. The grated pecorino makes an appearance. Well, just a sprinkle of it on the grilled corn together with Aleppo chili. Eating the grilled corn with avocado butter, I won’t want the summer season to end!

Print Recipe

Grilled Corn with Avocado butter, Grilled Limes and Aleppo Chilli

Ingredients

• 1 very ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and flesh roughly chopped
• 60g unsalted butter, softened
• 3 limes – 1 zested and juiced, the other 2 cut into quarters
• Salt
• 4 corn cobs, cut in half widthways to make 8 smaller cobs
• 20g pecorino, finely grated
• 5g mint leaves, finely shredded
• 1 tsp aleppo chilli (or ½ tsp if using a stronger type of chilli flake)

Instructions

1

Put the avocado, butter, a teaspoon each of lime zest and juice, and a quarter-teaspoon of salt in the small bowl of a food processor. Blitz until smooth and whipped, then refrigerate for 10 minutes.

2

Ventilate the kitchen and put a large griddle pan on a high heat. Once it’s very hot, chargrill the cobs for 10 minutes, turning them regularly, until charred all over, then transfer to a plate. Griddle the flesh sides of the lime wedges for two minutes, until they’re striped with dark char marks, but take care not to char the skin.

3

Serve two pieces of corn per person, spreading a tablespoon of avocado butter over each one before sprinkling with the pecorino, mint and chilli. Serve with the lime wedges alongside.

Notes

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/08/cheese-scone-recipe-lamb-pizza-greek-chips-feta-corn-avocado-butter-yotam-ottolenghi