Our best summer corn recipes include everything from grilled corn on the cobs, grilled corn salads, and corn in a cup, a Mexican street food dish that has a cousin in Southeast Asia. And as summer is corn season in many parts of the northern hemisphere, we’ll be sharing more corn recipes over coming weeks, which we’ll add to this collection.
June-July is when most corn is harvested here in Cambodia so we’re seeing locally-grown sweet yellow corn at the markets and supermarkets, and I have to confess that I love corn season almost as much as I love mango season, so you can expect to see lots more corn recipes added to this compilation of our best summer corn recipes.
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Best Summer Corn Recipes for Grilled Corn Cobs, Corn Salads and Corn in a Cup
Our best summer corn recipes include everything from grilled corn on the cobs, grilled corn salads, and corn in a cup, a Mexican street food dish that has a cousin in Southeast Asia.
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Lime Butter and Lemongrass Mayonnaise Recipe
This grilled corn with lime butter and lemongrass mayonnaise recipe is my favourite grilled corn on the cob recipe and one of our best summer corn recipes. It’s a fusion dish of sorts, inspired by a few favourites of Cambodian food and Mexican street food: the popular street food snack in Cambodia of grilled corn on the cob slathered with mayonnaise, lime juice and chilli flakes; the more traditional Cambodian grilled corn, poat dot, which is brushed with a sauce of coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, and spring onions; and the Mexican grilled corn street food dish, below. We char-grill our corn on the cob on our griddle pan on the stove, over a traditional clay brazier on our balcony, as most Cambodians do at home and on the streets (we use these coconut charcoal BBQ briquettes, which we love), or on our stovetop Korean BBQ grill pan. But you could also use one of these outdoor barbecue or grills.
Grilled Corn Salad Recipe With Lime, Chilli, Lemongrass Mayo and Sourdough Croutons
This grilled corn salad recipe with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayonnaise, and sourdough croutons uses up grilled corn on the cob leftovers from your weekend barbecues and those hard sourdough bread ends you didn’t finish. It’s a fantastic salad for spring picnics and summer barbecues and can also serve as a meal on its own. My grilled corn salad recipe with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayonnaise, and sourdough croutons and crumbs was conceived to use up some grilled corn on the cob leftovers, along with some lemongrass mayo. I was also getting homesick and nostalgic for the corn salads of family barbecues in Sydney in the 1970s. Terence also happened to have a crunchy end of near-stale sourdough bread as, avid sourdough baker that he is, he’s pulling homemade sourdough boules out of the oven every few days (if you’re new to sourdough baking, see his excellent easy sourdough beginner’s guide), so I asked him to make some sourdough croutons and crunchy toasted sourdough crumbs, which gave this fragrant grilled corn salad fantastic texture.
Mexican Grilled Corn Recipe – How to Make Mexico’s Street Food Corn Called Elotes
This Mexican grilled corn recipe makes Mexico’s corn on the cob street food snack called elotes. It’s another of our best summer corn recipes. Super easy, it makes use of summer corn and is fantastic on its own or can be served as a barbecue side. We became addicted to this in Mexico on our first trip to the country way back in 1993 and we ate it everywhere every chance we got, from Mexico City to Oaxaca, whether it was served either on the cob or in a cup. When we returned home to Australia after a couple of months travelling around Mexico and the USA (where we had eloped and got married in the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas), we began making this Mexican grilled corn recipe – and hosting Mexican themed dinner parties and sunset margaritas on weekend evenings on our Potts Point balcony. We were infatuated with Mexico. And there’s nothing like recreating the food and drinks of a place you travelled to and loved when you return home to transport you back to that destination – and that’s what we did with the food and drink of Mexico in our Sydney apartment all those years ago.
Mexican Grilled Corn Salad Recipe for a Taste of Mexico at Home
This Mexican grilled corn salad recipe can be made from scratch or can be assembled using any leftovers from the Mexican grilled corn on the cob street food snack recipe for elotes, above. It’s a terrific salad for corn lovers and is fantastic for summer barbecues and picnics. I don’t know about you, but we can’t always get ancho chilli powder here in Cambodia, which is why we say “and/or” dried chilli flakes. We have to use dried chilli flakes most of the time, which we adore anyway. I can sprinkle chilli flakes on everything, so that’s what we’re sprinkling on our corn cobs. If you can’t get Mexico’s cotija cheese or Mexican crema (which we also can’t get here), use white cheese or crumbly feta cheese (or a combination of both) and sour cream, cream or creamy mayonnaise (or a combination of all!).
Mexican Street Corn in a Cup Recipe – How to Make Esquites or Elote en Vaso
Our Mexican street corn in a cup recipe for Mexico’s esquites or elote en vaso, which means ‘corn in a cup’, makes a Mexican street food snack or antojitos meaning ‘little cravings’, that we became addicted to on our first trip to Mexico many years ago. Like most Mexican food, it’s absolutely delicious, and it’s undoubtedly another of our best summer corn recipes. It’s also super easy to make, especially if you have leftover corn on the cob. Esquites or elote en vaso consists of steaming hot corn kernels with Mexican crema, cotija cheese, lime juice, and ancho chilli powder that’s sold in a takeaway cup. It comes with a spoon and you stir it all up and the first time you try it on the streets of Mexico City or Merida or Oaxaca, like a slap to the face – or a whack to a piñata – you realise what’s been missing in your life. Our easy Mexican street corn in a cup recipe is quick to come together, too, particularly if you made our Mexican street corn on the cob recipe and have some corn cobs leftover.
If you’re serving any of these grilled corn dishes from Mexico for a Mexican feast, you might also like our recipes for authentic guacamole, an easy red tomato salsa, tortilla soup, tacos al pastor, grilled corn salad, chili con carne, nachos, quesadillas, and classic margaritas and micheladas.
This Thai Corn Fritters Recipe for Tod Man Khao Pod is Made for Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
Our Thai corn fritters recipe makes tod man khao pod in Thai – crunchy, chewy corn fritters that we gently spice with a little chilli paste. Eaten as a snack in Thailand and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, you could serve these Thai corn fritters as finger food or as an appetiser. They’re fantastic dipped into Thai sweet chilli sauce. If you made a batch of our homemade sweet chilli sauce, then you need to make these delightfully crunchy, chewy corn fritters, seasoned with a little chilli paste, which are perfect for dipping into that sweet chilli sauce. Bonus: these also happen to be vegan corn fritters.
Corn Fritter Breakfast Burger Recipe with Fried Egg and Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
This corn fritter breakfast burger recipe is easily another of our best summer corn recipes. After making a final version of my delicious Thai corn fritters, I had a few leftover fritters – ok, a lot of extra fritters! – I also had burger buns from recipe testing (recipe coming soon), and a fresh jar of homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce, and, so our corn fritter and fried egg breakfast burger was born. This corn fritter breakfast burger recipe with fried egg and Thai sweet chilli sauce makes an incredibly delicious vegetarian breakfast burger that’s packed with flavour and crunch. With a Southeast Asian twist on the classic breakfast burger, it’s so good you won’t miss the burger patty and bacon, and the grease that comes with it, one bit. If you made our Thai corn fritters recipe and you have a batch of our homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce in the fridge, then you’re all set to go.
Please do let us know if you make any of our best summer corn recipes as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
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