Corn and hominy salad

Take advantage of corn season with this raw, refreshing, and super flavorful corn and hominy salad.

Take me to the recipe!

This salad was inspired by elote or Mexican street corn. When we lived in NYC, my favorite thing to get at the street fairs that popped up on summer weekends (we called them “socks and sausages”) was the grilled corn with mayo, chili powder, cilantro, and cotija cheese. Spray a little lime over those babies and they were the perfect mix of smoky, salty, creamy, and acidic.

I started developing this recipe last summer and never got around to posting it before corn season was over. This salad uses raw corn, so you really want to get the freshest cobs at the peak of their season. You can use frozen or otherwise not-peak corn and give it a quick saute before making the salad, but the fresh, raw stuff is truly the best.

So, there are about 12 million elote salad recipes on the interwebs, so what makes this one different, you ask? Hominy!

Hominy is dried corn kernels that have been soaked in an alkaline solution. Hominy is actually used to make masa, which is the key ingredient in corn tortillas, tamales, and other staples of Mexican cuisine. It has a light corn flavor with a slightly nutty aftertaste. Actually, once you taste hominy, you know that it tastes exactly the way corn tortillas taste.

The hominy adds bulk to the salad that makes it more versatile than a side dish. I’ve added this corn concoction into other meal salads and eaten it on its own with some shredded rotisserie chicken. So, while technically a side dish, this salad can easily transform into the star of the show.

A couple of notes:

• I only use 1/2 of a garlic clove because I want to be able to taste all of the ingredients rather than just raw garlic. If you really like garlic, feel free to use more, but I REALLY REALLY like garlic and 1/2 of a clove was more than enough for me.

• You can find prepared hominy in cans at basically any grocery store. If you have some dried hominy that you want to rehydrate, find instructions here.

• Cotija cheese is a dry, salty cheese that’s close to a farmer’s cheese. Kind of like if Feta and Parmesan had a baby. If you can’t find it, substitute a dry, nutty, crumbly cheese.

Corn and hominy salad

Yield: about 5 cups of salad
Time: 10 minutes

4 medium ears of corn, kernels removed (about 3½ cups)
1 cup hominy
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, tightly packed (stems and leaves are fine)
3 Tbsp mayo
½ tsp kosher salt
Juice of 1 large lime (1 Tbsp)
½-1 tsp chili powder, to taste
½ large garlic clove
Water, as needed to thin out the dressing, added 1 tsp at a time
3 oz cotija cheese

Remove the corn kernels with a knife. I like to use a bundt pan to catch them as they fly around, but any old bowl will do.

Rinse the hominy and add it to the bowl of corn.

In a blender or food processor, add the cilantro, mayo, oil, salt, lime juice, chili powder (start with 1/2 tsp and add more to taste), and garlic and blend until smooth, adding tiny amounts of water to thin out the sauce as necessary.

Mix the cilantro dressing into the corn and hominy.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt, chili powder or lime juice.

Mix in the shredded or grated cojita.

Green enchiladas

There are so many shortcuts one can take when making enchiladas and these are a great base for making any such substitutions!

Recipe, please!

I love enchiladas because they're a throw-anything-in-as-filling-and-bake-until-bubbly kind of dish and with cooler weather coming, who doesn't look forward to these dinners again?

However, I haven't had many great jarred sauces, so I decided to make my own and now I can never go back. Which makes this dish a bit more complicated and more appropriate for, say, a lazy rainy weekend than a frantic school night.

A couple of notes:

• If making your own enchilada sauce, double the recipe. This casserole calls for just a bit more than half of the original recipe. Doubling means you'll have enough for 2 more large casseroles. Freeze it in two parts and you can cut down on the prep time for this dish significantly.

• I used zucchini, turkey, and pinto beans, but feel free to sub any other veggies, beans, and proteins. You will have extra filling, but I felt it was silly to use less than the whole pound of turkey.

• Shorten the prep further by using rotisserie or other pre-cooked chicken and grating the onions and veggies so that they cook in the oven.

• This recipe hinges on the cheese, so try to find cojita. If you can't find it, use another salty, crumbly white cheese like ricotta salata or queso blanco.

Green enchiladas

Time: about 1.5 hours (some steps can overlap or be completed ahead of time)
Yield: 4-6 dinner servings

I adapted the sauce recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and it's darn near perfect. I added another 1/2 cup of green chilis because I thought the green chili taste could have been slightly stronger. Other than that, this sauce is dynamite.

For the sauce:
Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups canned, roasted poblano or other green chiles
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent too much browning.

Add the flour and stir until it has coated the onions and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently for 3 more minutes to take away the raw taste of flour.

Add the cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook for one more minute, stirring constantly. Add the green chilis and cook for one minute.

Slowly whisk in the broth and stir to break up any clumps. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the sauce is sufficiently thickened. It should coat the back of a spoon while still being a little runny. If too thick, add more broth. If too thin, continue cooking until the sauce tightens some more.

For the filling:
2 Tbsp oil
½ large onion
1 lb ground turkey
½ tsp mild chili powder
¾ tsp cumin
½ tsp salt
2 small or 1 large zucchini, chopped (about 1.5-2 cups)
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Heat the oil over a medium flame. Add the onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Add the turkey, chili powder, cumin, and salt and mix. Cook, stirring occasionally until no pink remains and the turkey is cooked through, adjusting the flame as needed.

Add the zucchini and cook, stirring, until softened, about 2-3 minutes.

Turn off the flame. Add the pinto beans and stir. Taste for seasonings and add more as needed.

For the casserole:
12-15 Corn tortillas
1.5-2 cups shredded cheddar or Meunster cheese (or a combo- about 3-4 oz total)
1 cup cotija cheese (about 3 oz)
1.5-1.75 cups green enchilada sauce (about half of the recipe, plus a few more Tbsps)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Spread a thin layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a brownie pan or casserole dish.

Lay out a tortilla and scoop 1-2 spoonfuls of the filling onto the middle of one tortilla. Sprinkle with a tbsp of cojita cheese and fold the ends to overlap in the middle. Carefully flip the bundle over and place into your casserole dish with the folded-side down. Repeat until the dish is full, squeezing as many tortillas as you can into the nooks and crannies.

Cover the folded tortillas with a thick layer of green enchilada sauce and spread into the corners. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or the cheese starts to look lightly golden and bubbly. Serve immediately.