ELOTE

A few weeks ago we held our second supper club at the Joker of Penton Street, a fabulous venue in Angel with a gorgeous upstairs room, just for us flamingos ;)

I’d been feeling the supper club needed to get bigger and better, take it out of my home to a larger more interesting venue. I’m happy to say it’s been very successful so far. Thanks to a wonderful team at the Joker and of course the Flamingo team. Welcoming the newest member, Mr Flamingo himself!! ;)

We start as always with nibbles and drinks before sitting down to a feast of Asian and Mexican flavours. 

A dish that seems to be a firm favourite is one of my own personal favourite snacks, elote! Aka, Mexican corn. A delicious street food snack. one that I was (ahem) mildly addicted to when I was travelling in Mexico.. Carts with steaming hot corn, ready to be coated in mayo, cheese, chili and lime. Mmmm mmmm. Healthy, no? 

In my last trip to Mexico we actually had a much more sophisticated elote at Pujol, a restaurant I talked about at length in a previous blog post, now that was a great experience…Mexico City and Pujol

The version I serve for the supper club is off the cob corn, bowls of toasted corm, topped with a chipotle mayo and grated pecorino or crumbled feta and pico limon, served with freshly fried corn tortillas, yummmm

Enough people have asked me for the recipe now that it was time to post it, and I’m sorry it took so long.. I actually found it surprisingly difficult to photograph the corn as well, which added to the delay in getting this up! 

Steamed corn covered in mayo, cheese, chili and a squeeze of lime. Maybe not the healthiest snack I know, but oh my giddy gosh, so good! And something I’m still addicted to 10 years after coming back from my travels in Mexico. 
I make my own mayonnaise here, with cold pressed rapeseed oil, you can either use grated pecorino or feta, these are the closest readily available alternatives to the Mexican cojita cheese, not easy to get in London.* You see, it’s not that unhealthy, all homemade and cold pressed. ;)

I also have a secret magic ingredient which is pico limon. This I bring back from New York, you can use cayenne pepper, a squeeze of lime and pinch of salt instead. 

After a lot of experimenting I think the best way to make off the cob corn is to steam half the corn whole, and then take them off the cob, this way you keep nice big chunks. The other half take off the cob before cooking, and toast in a large pan with a little coconut oil to stop it sticking, until nice and brown. 

To keep things simpler, you can however just do one or the other. I came to discover this as a great combination after much experimenting photographing the corn! 

I also really love the corn on the cob. 

Serves 4 as a starter or a side dish

4 corn, husks removed
1 tbsp. coconut oil
20g coriander, chopped
2 tbsp. sweet white onion or red onion, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp chipotle mayo
½ -1 tsp. pico limon
50g Greek feta

Steam half the corn for about 4 minutes until cooked. Allow to cool enough to handle using a sharp knife remove from the cob. 

While the corn is steaming, heat a large fry pan and add your coconut oil and corn, cook until browned. Add the coriander, onion, chili powder, salt to taste, remembering you’re topping with a salty cheese.

Transfer to your serving dish, top with a 2 to 3 tbsp. of chipotle mayonnaise, crumble over the feta add a sprinkle of chili and enjoy with fresh tortillas or as a side dish. 

Elote

4 corn
4 tbsp chipotle mayo approx.
80g pecorino
1 lime, quartered
sprinkling of pico limon or cayenne pepper


Steam the corn for 4 minutes until just cooked, turning if necessary. Brush with chipotle mayo, grate over the cheese, a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of chili and enjoy!

*Cool Chile Co has a great range of Mexican produce, fresh and dried. 
http://www.coolchile.co.uk/