The Silver Queen
Strolling through the Farmers Market this time of year kills me. Well, this year especially. Every genuine Southern farmer has heaping baskets overflowing with corn. Just picked. Silky strands teasing out from under downy green.
I don’t buy just any ear of corn. Silver Queen got her name for a reason. Pale yellow kernels, bursting with flavor. Skin pulled taut but not tough. Bites that burst all over the face before tiltillating the palatte. It is the perfect starch.
Grilling it over hot coals adds just a hint of smoke. Added bonus? It doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen in the dog days of summertime. Here’s our recipe for grilling the queen of all corn.
Grilling Silver Queen Corn
- Soak the corn in a bucket or the sink for about 30 minutes (helps keep the husks from burning too fast on the grill)
- Light the grill, letting the coals burn down until they smolder.
- Shuck each ear of corn, but leave the husk attached at the bottom.
- Clean the cob of silks and discard.
- Place generous knobs of butter around each ear.
- Attach various herbs from the garden. Oregano, sage, rosemary and thyme stand up to the heat.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Replace the husks, using the butter to stick them back to the ear.
- Grill ears of corn, turning continuously until the husks are charred.
- Remove one ear and peel back the husk a bit to check for doneness.
- Remove from heat. Discard husks and herbs.
- Add more butter, salt and pepper if desired.
- Chow down!
This post is part of my Torture Myself By Writing About Food While On the Dukan Diet Series. To eat these posts from the beginning, click here and read forward for butt-kicking pimento cheese, delectable pickled shrimp, beautiful boiled peanuts and succulent grits.
Also add my two favorite herbs.
Tra. La. La.
Danged, I’ve not yet had breakfast and your now torturing me.
Well, I made cookies on Saturday.
And I just had a horrid hotel breakfast. Corn on the cob mmmmmmm
WordPress is putting both you and Cameron in spam. I don’t know why it is picking on you two, but I go over there and find you.
Hideous hotel breakfast?
I think wordpress ate my comment – it involved this hideous hotel breakfast.
WordPress is behaving hideously this am.
I now have to sign in every morning in WordPress before I can like or make any comment. I suspect they are in cahoots with Facebook and are getting even with you for your naughty FB comments. We are mere victims of your vortex of FB babble.
I’m very grateful that people continue to comment, in light of how hard they are making it.
Looks gorgeous…..
It is fun for kids, too.
You do not mess about with corn prep, my friend.
I’ve wanted to try the one where boiling water is poured in a cooler and the ears are added.
Yum!!!!!! Add a little heat like chipotle pepper too!
Heat is always good, Judy.
I just picked up corn too — I’m thinking about cold avocado corn soup, but I’m a little bummed I can’t follow you and grill it!
Corn corn soup is mouth watering, though. Especially on a hot day.
Enjoted the nuts Andra – never got on with corn though so i will swerve this one!
This post is so corny! Really trying to bend our ears with this one. But shucks, I like it anyway. I guess it is because I detected a kernel of truth in it. Even if it was like wandering a maze to get there. But, I wormed my way through until it popped into my mind. Was kind of like stalking a corn through a… wheat field.
Punny, Carnell. Very punny.
I love corn on the cob especially grilled by the bay in Cape Cod but that’s not the only way to appreciate corn…
I ain’t goin’ home as long as I’m still dry
I ain’t goin’ home as long as I’m still dry
I said the beer won’t do it and I need a little whiskey and rye
There’s only one thing gonna do the trick for me
There’s only one thing gonna do the trick for me
And that’s the corn mash whiskey that they make in tennessee
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/blues+traveler/corn+mash+blues_20020887.html ]
I’m gonna get back, right now
Don’t care where, don’t care how
Gonna get back to tennessee
Where my whiskey’s waiting for me
Nothing’s gonna do it but that corn mash whiskey of mine
Oh, back at home, my baby’s got a nice little still
I said back at home, my baby’s got a nice little still
She say she gonna leave me, but I don’t believe she will
I been wasting my time drinking that jackie d.
I been wasting my time drinking that jackie d.
They say it’s got a kick but it don’t do the trick for me
I’m gonna get back, right now
Don’t care where, don’t care how
Gonna get back to tennessee
Where my whiskey’s waiting for me
Nothing’s gonna do it but that corn mash whiskey of mine
Blues Traveler
Love this comment, Robert. I’m going to Tennessee with my father in October, for his 60th high school reunion. I’ll see if I can’t find some corn mash whiskey while I’m there.
So sorry you can’t eat corn this year. That would be painful for me too. Good luck with the diet, my friend. Hope your weekend is going well.
Hugs,
Kathy
It’s going well so far, Kathy. The pain of not eating some of the things I love pales to my happiness at how my clothes fit these days.
That’s one of the best descriptions of the succulence of corn that I’ve read in a long time.
Thank you. I hope you went out and grabbed some up for supper.
We are enjoying some really wonderfully fresh and delicious corn in our farmer’s boxes these days–had some last night! But I’m not at all familiar with Silver Queen and she just looks wonderful! She’s pretty!
Debra
Debra, Silver Queen is a bit lighter kerneled than the photo above. This was the only corn shot I could find in my extensive collection, and it is a hybrid that includes the lighter Silver Queen kernels. To my knowledge, SQ is only grown in the South. It’s sweet, and the skin isn’t as tough as the yellower varieties.
Oh, yum, yum, yum, yum, yummmmm! Salivating here and making a mess of keyboard. We almost always cook our corn this way. It is the best. Alas and alack, there won’t be much local corn this year as Illinois is in a drought. Still, the little local fields that have been watering . . .
Glad I made your mouth water, Penny.
Some grilled corn is a just reward for slaving in the garden.
You made me gleek. Too funny. Spittal just shot out of my mouth (no, not a loogie – gross), gleeking this early in the morning is very unusual…thanks for that. Ha.
If we ate corn on the cob for breakfast, maybe we’d burn it off by the end of the day??