Grilled Corn Salad with Fresh Cheese and Corn Nuts by Alison Roman

A few weeks ago, I made Alison’s other grilled corn salad, Charred Corn and Scallions with Tomatillos. I have a preference between the two. Keep reading to find out! (Oh, the suspense!)

This Grilled Corn Salad is essentially the same as the Charred Corn, but instead of scallions, there are red onions marinated in lime juice, and instead of sliced tomatillos, a half cup of corn nuts. Both salads use plenty of cilantro and cotija. And both benefit from lots of salt and black pepper. 

The corn nuts are super fun in the Grilled Corn Salad. They blend in really well with the corn kernels, so you don’t know when you’ve got one on your fork. This makes their crunch a total surprise. You never know when you’ll chomp down on one of those toasty, salty buds. Corn nuts remind me of my childhood. My mom never bought them for us, but I would trade away anything in my brown paper sack for a bag of corn nuts at the lunch tables. 

I’m curious about Alison’s choice to have us grill the corn with husks on, rather than directly over the flames. With the husks on, the corn didn’t get any char and it took a whole half hour to cook. The other salad had the kernels char directly over the grate and it only took 10 minutes. Quicker, tasiter, and reason #1 why I prefer the Charred Corn over the Grilled Corn. 

Reason #2 is the lack of strong acidic contrast in the Grilled Corn Salad. While the recipe calls for lime juice, it’s a primarily salt-forward dish. I know I could just add more lime, but I appreciate how the Charred Corn incorporated the juicy, tangy elements of tomatillos right out of the gate. I think this classifies as truly a personal preference, but I’ll vote anything with tomatillos over dishes without. The presence of tomatillos cinched the deal for me. At the end of the day, it’s the Charred Corn that I crave, both for the time it takes to make and its flavor profile. 

118 recipes cooked, 107 to go.

Grilled Carrots with Limey Hot Sauce and Cotija by Alison Roman

It’s summer, friends! Which means grilling season! Which means of course I had to make a list of all of Alison’s recipes that require (or strongly suggest) using a grill. My in-law’s live about 15 minutes away, and have both gas and charcoal grills. I plan to utilize these grills for all of the grill recipes until we move to Chicago in September. 

I find it necessary to disclose that I’ve never grilled before. I still haven’t. I asked my father-in-law to monitor these carrots while I prepped the rest of the meal. That said, I intend to be more hands-on in the future! 

To prep these delicious carrots, I simply tossed them in oil and salt and pepper before plopping them directly on the grill. The grill is set to medium-high, and Alison says the char should happen in 8-10 minutes. We took the carrots off at 10 minutes, but I must admit that they could have spent another 5 and gotten even softer, charred and more delicious. Margaret agreed. 

That’s right, Margaret! Margaret, more than anyone else in my life, has taught me how to cook. She’s also one of my best friends. She and I cooked this recipe together, and it was such a treat. 

Once grilled, the carrots are tossed in a “limey hot sauce” which is really just a mixture of lots of lime juice, honey garlic and minced jalapeño. It’s not a marinade, it’s a sauce. A very thin liquid sauce with chunks of minced jalapeño. It’s really good, and the leftovers were passed around the table for more drizzling on truly everything on our plates — Alison’s charred corn and some grilled chicken. 

The final element is cotija cheese. We crumbled far more than the recipe calls for on top of the carrots. Margaret would have liked for a better way for the getting the cotija to adhere to the carrots. It tended to fall off once plated, which meant scooping up cheese crumbles with your fork after each bite of carrot. Doable, but not ideal, nor elegant. Although, can you eat carrots elegantly? I’m unsure. 

Overall, these carrots are a fun summer night dish that most definitely will appear again in meals to come. 

90 recipes cooked, 135 to go.