Esquites
Esquites is elote taken off the cob — the same corn with mayonnaise, cheese and chilli, eaten with a spoon from a cup instead of off a stick. In this version one move decides it: the corn must be charred in a very hot dry pan until some kernels turn black. Boiled corn is merely sweet; charred, it gains a bitter, smoky note that keeps the whole thing from cloying.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Charring the corn 12 min
- Dressing 5 min
- Combining 5 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneHeat the pan until it is very hot
Heat a heavy pan (ideally cast iron, not non-stick) dry, for 3–4 minutes over high heat — a drop of water should hiss away instantly. The corn has to land on hot metal — in a lukewarm pan it steams in its own water and never chars.
Ingredients: 600 g corn · 30 g butter · 2 cloves garlic
Char the corn in a single layer
Add the kernels in one layer and leave them alone for 3 minutes. Then stir and repeat two or three more times, about 12 minutes in all. If your pan is less than 30 cm across, char the corn in two batches. The aim is for some kernels to blacken, not for all of them to colour evenly. The unevenness is the point.
Ingredients: 600 g corn · 30 g butter · 2 cloves garlic
Some kernels black, some golden — as intended.Add butter and garlic at the end
Lower the heat (if you charred in batches, return all the corn to the pan), add the butter and crushed garlic and cook for 60 seconds. The garlic goes in last because at the temperature needed to char corn it would burn within seconds. Take off the heat and cool 5 minutes.
Ingredients: 600 g corn · 30 g butter · 2 cloves garlic
Mix the dressing
Whisk the mayonnaise with the sour cream, the juice of one lime, most of the chilli (keep a pinch for sprinkling), the paprika and salt. It should taste distinctly sour and hot — it is about to be spread through a lot of sweet corn and will mellow noticeably.
Ingredients: 100 g mayonnaise · 80 g sour cream · 2 pcs limes · 1 tsp chilli powder · ½ tsp smoked paprika · ½ tsp salt
Sour and hot — the corn will soften it.Combine while the corn is warm
Stir the dressing into warm, not hot corn. In hot corn the mayonnaise splits and the sauce turns greasy and thin; warm corn takes it well and is still pleasantly warm to eat.
Ingredients: 100 g mayonnaise · 80 g sour cream · 2 pcs limes · 1 tsp chilli powder · ½ tsp smoked paprika · ½ tsp salt
Warm corn — hot corn splits the mayonnaise.Serve in cups with cheese and lime
Divide into cups, crumble the cheese over, scatter with coriander and the reserved chilli. Cut the second lime into wedges and serve them to squeeze at the table. Esquites is eaten with a spoon, warm or at room temperature.
Ingredients: 100 g feta · ½ bunch coriander
Before you start
Frozen corn
It works well, but it must be fully thawed and patted dry. Ice on the kernels drops the pan temperature and you get steaming instead of charring.
Instead of cotija
Cotija is a hard, salty Mexican cheese. Feta or a well-aged ricotta salata come closest. Parmesan works too, though it adds a nutty note the original does not have.
Elote instead of esquites
The same dressing spread over whole grilled cobs is elote. Very similar flavour, considerably messier to eat — esquites is simply the spoonable version.
