Elote, is Spanish for Corn on the Cob, or should I say corn on a stick as on the streets of Mexico where this recipe originates from, the husk of the fresh corn is pulled down to form a ‘handle’ making it easier for all the butter and juices to run down your hand and drip from your elbow.

Before you overreact, let’s be real; this is what makes street food so delicious right? The mess, the impatience, the flavours and most of all the condiments. Where would street food be without the ‘side dishes’. In fact this is what separate’s Elote from all other ears of roasted corn: you combine a blend of lime juice and butter, which is no surprise to many of us. But then here come’s mayonnaise and Cotija anejo (a mild flavoured Mexican cheese with a crumbly texture) which transforms the corn from a snack to a meal as the mayonnaise soon becomes a dipping sauce and the tangy cheese just melts between the honeycomb of the corn, forming gooey puddles along the cob.

Don’t worry if you can’t get your hands on any Cotija anejo, I substituted this with some good quality Feta Cheese. And to add some pepper to the recipe, I made up a Chipotle mayonnaise using Chipotle paste, another Mexican ingredient which literally means smoked chilli. If you look in the delicatessen section of a large supermarket, you should be able to find it in a small jar, normally made with a blend of tomato, onion and garlic. It has a wonderful smoky flavour which enhances the smokiness of the corn very well.

With a couple of cobs to spare, I scraped the kernels into a bowl and mixed it with Avocado, the feta cheese and chipotle mayonnaise and made a fresh salad which I had the following day with some left over roast chicken. I finished it before I had time to take the picture, honestly I tried but the plate was a hot mess!

Don’t worry if you don’t have a BBQ grill to hand, I used the grill pictured above and put the stove on for the highest heat having sprayed it with oil and turning it over every few minutes as you would on a grill.