An Inspired Cook

The other day I found fresh corn advertised in the sale circular.  It seemed a bit early for having corn on the cob but it was on sale so I had to check it out.  When I saw the golden silk and perfect kernels I found myself picking up a half dozen ears.  I had planned to roast it outside, but an unexpected rain storm came up and I had to find an alternative.  I searched the web to see if anyone roasted corn in the oven.  As it turns out, yes, some do roast it in the oven and find it quite tasty.  Obviously I wasn’t going to do any grilling today and I didn’t want the corn to sit out another day so I tried the oven roasting method.  It worked really well!  I had some extra corn left over and decided to make salsa in the Molcajete and add the left over corn kernels.  It was so good!  Everyone loved it and I thought it was worthy of sharing!

It wasn’t until after I roasted the corn to take some pictures.  First I pulled the husk down partway and removed the silk.  Rinse the corn and pull the husks back up to cover the corn.  This serves to steam the corn.  Put the corn in a pre-heated oven 350 degrees.  Turn the corn after 15 minutes and roast an additional 15 minutes.

This is what you need to make the salsa.  I have my roasted ear of corn, plus I roasted a large tomato in the oven and 4 pieces of garlic.  It only takes 5 – 7 minutes for the tomato to roast under the broiler setting of 450 degrees.  I used 4 Chile de Arbol dried chiles,  some green onion tops, half a lime, tomato sauce, salt and sugar in the raw.

If you have time, toast your dried chiles in a fry  pan over medium heat for about 3 – 4 minutes, just until they become fragrant.

I squeezed some lime juice into the Molcajete.

Grind 2 pieces of the roasted garlic.  My molcajete isn’t big enough to make the full recipe so I will have half now and make another batch afterwards.  If you don’t have a molcajete, you might use a food processor to mix it all together.  You can pulse it to get the texture of salsa you want.

Next comes the toasted chiles.  Crush them with your fingers, then grind them into smaller finer pieces.

Since I’m halving my recipe I cut up half of the tomato.  It was a large one!  Grind easy on the tomato, I’ve been squirted more times than I can count!

Now add your salt, sugar and tomato sauce.

Add the green onion and corn kernels.

A little messy, but well worth it.  You can’t beat the earthy goodness that comes from making salsa in a molcajete.





Chile de Arbol Salsa with Roasted Corn

4 Chile de Arbol dried chiles, toasted
Juice of 1/2 Lime
4 Garlic Cloves, roasted
1 large Tomato, roasted
2 teaspoons Sugar in the Raw
1 teaspoon Salt
1 (8 ounce) can Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup Roasted Corn Kernels
1 tablespoon Green Onion, sliced

Remove the silk from corn and rinse.  Replace the husk back in place and roast in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.  Roast tomato and garlic for about 5 – 7 minutes or until the skin begins to peel off the tomato and garlic is softened.  Toast the dried chiles for 3 – 4 minutes in a small fry pan over medium high heat just until they become fragrant.

You may use a food processor or molcajete.  Squeeze lime juice and grind roasted garlic.  Crush the dried chiles and grind them in with the garlic.  Cut the tomato into smaller pieces and gently grind in.  Add the sugar, salt and tomato sauce.  Stir in the green onion and roasted corn kernels.

Makes about 2 cups