Mexican Street Corn Potato Salad

Give me one good reason not to eat this every single day. Please.

Roasted corn, lime, scallions, cotija cheese!

I’VE BEEN ABSOLUTELY DROWNING in salad ideas this week, partly because I drove from Virginia down into northwestern North Carolina, where one of my favorite produce stands is located. This little hut still had perfectly ripe South Carolina peaches, plums, blackberries, muscadines and scuppernongs, Japanese eggplant, and my beloved Cherokee Purple and Mr. Stripey tomatoes. My Aunt Mariah and I grabbed way too much of it. And I got a little sentimental because it was very much the same local bounty that became my springboard for the Department of Salad.

Mr. Stripey in the middle.

We also visited my favorite small, family-run orchard, along Highway 221 in Crumpler, NC, which happens to be the only small, family-run orchard I’ve ever visited. Back in 2017, I stopped by to get eggs and when I reached the top of the sloped driveway I could smell the Seckel pears and grapes and apples in buckets and shallow crates under the carport. I swooned, so the owner took me on a little tour of the ancient trees and vines (they have Virginia Beauty trees, White Transparent apple trees, red and purple grapes, several kinds of pears, damson plums, and a giant sour cherry). When we got back, his wife invited me up to their house (past two peacocks standing on some farm equipment) and gave me jars of fresh Concord grape juice and pear honey. It was a heavenly day.

Scenes from the McNeill family orchard in Crumpler, NC.

I’ve driven by many times since then to find no one home, or maybe they were out in the fields across 221 where they raise other plants and animals on their land. So it was pure luck that when Mariah and I stopped by to see if they had eggs, the owners, James and Joyce McNeill, were around. Joyce was coming out of the vines with a woman who’d dropped by to get a box of grapes to make juice. We got another little tour, almost as glorious as my first, and left with grapes, apples, pickled squash, transparent apple jelly, and pattypan squash and tomatoes.

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But rather than making salads, this week Mariah and I have been dining on sliced peaches and tomatoes as supper, along with egg salad or sliced pork tenderloin, popping Cherokee Purple cherry tomatoes and scuppernongs into our mouths as we walk through the kitchen and, in my case, looking at the eggplants and pattypan squash with a worried expression, because I can’t decide what to do with them

Because all of it is so good eaten straight up, and so effortless. And because I got a bee in my bonnet while we were eating at the Gap Deli at the Parkway, over in Fancy Gap (which is a terrific place to get a sandwich if you’re passing through Southwestern Virginia on I-77 or traveling along the Blue Ridge Parkway).

I had a side of good very simple potato salad—I don’t even remember what was in it—and then I couldn’t stop thinking about making potato salad, even though we hadn’t bought a single potato. And never mind that we still have all that produce to eat, or that the salad I came up with when I decided I wanted my dish to be extra summery required that I buy corn, which, quite honestly, I was thrilled to do. As Winston Churchill said, you cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth.

RECIPE: Mexican Street Corn Potato Salad

Serves 4-6

I first had Mexican street corn, or elote, not in Mexico but in Manhattan, of course. In Soho! It’s grilled corn, coated in a mayonnaise/lime/chili/cheese mixture that you never forget. I didn’t NEED to turn it into a potato salad, but I have to be honest with you: This dish may be my life’s crowning achievement.

• 1 ½ pounds Yukon gold potatoes, skin on but scrubbed

• 4 ears of corn, shucked, rinsed, and dried

• 3 scallions, sliced (include some tops)

• 1/3 cup mayonnaise (I use Duke’s)

• 1/3 cup sour cream (my favorite is Daisy)

• Juice and zest of 1/2 lime

• 1 clove garlic, grated

• 1/4 teaspoon your favorite chili powder (Ancho, Chipotle, etc.), more to taste or to finish dish

• 2/3 cup grated cotija cheese (your grocer should have this; if they don’t, complain)

• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• 1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro or a very small handful of whole leaves (optional)

• 2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeños (optional)

• Lime wedges for serving

1. Place your potatoes in a big pot of water, bring it to a boil and cook until fork tender. Let them cool; peel, cube and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, preheat your oven broiler. Place the ears of corn (no oil; just naked) on a cookie sheet and put them under the broiler to roast until nicely browned all over, turning when necessary; this will take 15 minutes or so You can also do this on your grill, of course. Once the ears are cool enough to handle, slice the kernels from the cobs and place them in a large bowl with the potatoes and scallions.

3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice and zest, garlic, and chili powder; season with salt and pepper. Pour this over the potatoes and corn, toss lightly to coat it all, then add the cheese and toss again. Taste for salt, pepper, more lime, or a bit more cotija. This can stand up to quite a bit of salt.

4. Let this sit for half an hour or so before serving, folding in the chopped cilantro at the end and dusting with a bit of extra chili powder; offer lime wedges on the side. (You can also simply garnish the dish with cilantro leaves, in case you have non-cilantrants at your table.) This is also when you should fold in the pickled jalapeños, if you decide to use them. If you have time to refrigerate overnight, even better. Just let it come almost to room temperature again before serving.

   

   Mexican Street Corn Potato Salad

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