Herb Grilled Corn-On-The-Cob

This was a bit of an ad hoc meal after coming home from grocery shopping in town(For those who don't know, it is a ferry ride and about a 30 minute drive to get to the closest "major" town for grocery shopping) which takes the better part of the day so by the time we got home, it was time to get something cooked so that Terra could leave for work.


As we were unpacking the groceries, I snagged the T-bone steaks(not something we usually buy but it was a decent sale and was time for something different) and figured what better to go with steaks than some corn on the cob.  So, knowing I would grill the steaks, Terra asked if I was going to grill the corn.  This is something that we have both seen on television several times but have never tried for ourselves, so I figured why not give it a go.

I grabbed my trusty iPod touch and quickly found a recipe for Herb Grilled Corn-On-The-Cob from Anna Olson and decided to give it a try, though I did have to adapt it a fair amount, for ingredients and for time constraint.

First, the recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
• 6 ears corn-on-the-cob
• finely grated parmesan cheese

I was making four ears, not the six that the recipe calls for, so I did end up reducing the amount of ingredients that I used so here is what I ended up using:

• 1/3 cup margarine
• 1/3 cup chopped green onions (great to have on hand and are really cheap)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2/3 tablespoon ground cumin
• 4 ears corn-on-the-cob

Now, we don't have butter in the house but margarine is in almost all cases an acceptable substitution.  Green onions are something that I try to keep in the house and at $0.69 per bunch, they don't break the bank.  I also don't keep much in the way of fresh herbs and spices, just due to not having a green thumb and the dog knocking over the last planter full of herbs last week. So I used the dry oregano and I used the cumin to substitute for the coriander, using a reduced amount because the dried spices are more potent than their fresh relatives.  Also, I left off the parmesan cheese because I just plain forgot to add it back on after it came off the grill and was plated.


The margarine and herbs all got tossed into the cute mini food processor that we have.

Great little mini food processor that gets the smaller jobs done, no problem.  Also great for dealing with those pesky onions.

While I put that together, Terra peeled back the husk, without removing it and cleaned off the silk, then we buttered the cob, replaced the husk and then the ends were tied closed with some kitchen twine.


Now due to time constraints, I didn't refrigerate them for the 20 minutes that is recommended.


I took them out and tossed them onto the grill and let them hang out on medium high heat for about 18 minutes.

The corn and the T-bones getting to know each other before they get a little more intimate in our stomachs.

I rotated the corn, to cook it evenly but one problem that I did have was that the husk dried out fairly quickly and proceeded to keep catching on fire.

While fussing over corn fires, I may have left the steaks on a little too long.

When they finally got cooked , I was pleasantly surprised that it was only the outer husk that had burned and the inside was still fine thanks to the moisture from the margarine mixture.

The corn and mushrooms turned out really well but I did manage to over cook the steaks while fussing over flaming corn.

The corn was great, great flavour, great texture, a nice slightly smokey taste, and no need to try and add butter after the fact.  The one thing that I found was that there was a bit of a gritty texture on some bites due to the use of the dried herbs which would definitely be a reason to get the fresh herbs.  However, the process of grilling the corn is fairly simple, it would be easy to experiment with different flavoured margarine mixtures to use, like a garlic margarime or something with some extra kick.


This is definitely something that i will be trying again in the not too distant future.