Elote: Mexican Grilled Corn

Grilling corn turns a mere vegetable into a tasty summer treat. The heat caramelizes the corn's sugars and imparts a delicious, smoky taste.

Mexican corn on the cob, or elote, combines the sweetness of grilled corn with salty cotija cheese, tart lime and fiery cayenne.

Making your own elote is rather simple:

4 ears corn
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup grated cotija cheese (use Parmesan if not available in your area)
1 lime
Cayenne pepper

Soak 4 cobs of corn, in their husks for 30 minutes (this will prevent the husk from burning before the corn has finished cooking).

Prepare a medium-hot grill.

Shuck corn, leaving husks attached to the ends of the cob. Pull husks back up and tie with a small piece of cooking twine.

Grill corn for 20-25 minutes, turning after every 5 minutes to ensure the kernels cook evenly.

Remove from grill and remove husks.

Roll each corn in butter and then spread mayonnaise over cob.

Sprinkle evenly with cheese. Sprinkle a little cayenne pepper over each cob, depending on your tastes.

Squeeze lime over corn before serving.

Blue Cheese Burgers with Portobello Mushroom Caps

This recipe can be altered to suit your tastes-I used blue cheese, but feta, cheddar, jalapeno jack, Gouda-anything can be used in its place!

Ingredients:
2 lb lean ground beef
2 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (depending on how much you like it)
1 medium Vidalia onion (already diced and sauteed in olive oil until translucent)
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 large portobello mushroom caps
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 hamburger buns

Using your hands, mix together beef, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and blue cheese.

Form into 8 burger patties (with the added ingredients they are about 1/3 lb patties).

Thoroughly wash mushroom caps and let dry. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Heat grill on medium-high.

Brush each side of burger with a little olive oil to prevent from sticking to grill.

Sear burgers about 2 minutes on each side.

Turn heat down to medium. Add mushroom caps to grill.

Cook burgers and mushroom caps about 8-10 minutes, flipping once to cook evenly.

Remove burgers and mushroom caps from grill. Slice mushrooms into strips.

Grill buns until lightly toasted.

Place burgers on their respective buns, top with a few strips of mushrooms and garlic aioli, mushroom, ketchup or whatever your stomach desires!

Bistecca Fiorentina (Florentine Steak)

If God had wanted us to be a vegetarians, he wouldn't have made steak taste so good. Nothing shows someone you love them like steak. Or rather, I'll love anyone who feeds me a good, medium rare juicy cut of beef. : )

Ingredients:

2 rib eye (Delmonico) steaks
Olive oil
1 head garlic

Freshly ground black pepper
Salt

1 lemon
Parmesan cheese (either shaved, or shave your own using a vegetable peeler)
Arugula or spinach

Mince garlic and sprinkle 1/2 over steaks. Drizzle olive oil until steaks are well-covered. Grind pepper over steaks. Flip steaks and cover the other sides. Seal in Ziploc bag and let marinate for a minimum of 12 hours.

Turn grill to high for 10-15 minutes to warm up. Lightly salt both sides of steaks. Grill steak for 4 minutes, then flip and grill on other side for 4 minutes. This will cook the steaks to a juicy medium-rare. Let sit at least 5 minutes before cutting, as the steak will re-absorb its juices. If it is cut right away, all of the juiciness will flow onto the plate.

Cut lemon into 6 wedges. Place steaks on top of washed arugula. Shave Parmesan into curls on top of steak and greens. Squeeze lemons on top of everything. The sweetness of the steak is cut by the bitterness of the greens and the tart lemon.

Serve with a good, crusty bread like ciabatta. In Boston, a great ciabatta is sold in the South End at Las Ventas. It's less than 3 dollars and seriously the best I have found to date.

A nice, dry red wine such as an Argentine Malbec or Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon makes this meal heaven.