CULINARY SMACKDOWN: BATTLE SANDWICH

Yes, I know this is month's Smackdown is Battle: Sandwich, not Battle: Corn. But bear with me, friends, while I explain. You might recall that recently I received a thoughtful surprise package from my thoughtful and surprising sister.

It contained Iowa sweet corn!

I set about looking for new ways to use my sweet corn bounty and, inspired by a post from this month's Culinary Smackdown host and last month's winter, Christo aka DoggyBloggy at Chez What?, tried my hand at Mexican street corn.

I also tried oven-roasting corn for the first time. Husk on for about half an hour at 400 did the trick.

I mixed up some mayo with this chile lime salt and tossed in some roasted red pepper for good measure.

I doused an ear of corn in the sauce and added a squeeze of lime - which is key for this dish! Since I couldn't locate any cotija cheese, I rolled my coated corn ear in some feta, which has a similar crumbly consistency.

Yes, my first attempt was pretty goopy. But what good goop! I mixed leftover sauce with some corn off the cob, and it was heavenly.

My second attempt was a little more restrained, but I still couldn't get the deliciousness of these flavors out of my mind.

I realized the flavorful corn-lime-chile mayo would make an interesting sandwich condiment, and I set about building my Smackdown sandwich from there. Here's my trial run with chorizo atop Mexican street corn mayo on baguette.

My photo may not have turned out too well, but the sandwich sure tasted good.

Then it occurred to me shrimp would go exceptionally well with the Mexican street corn mayo. So here you have my entry for this month's Culinary Smackdown - Mexican street corn shrimp salad sandwich with cilantro, lime, and feta, and a mixed tomato salad on the side.

I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's Smackdown entries. Head on over to ChezWhat? to see DoggyBloggy's round-up of the entries tomorrow (I think). And may the best sandwich maker prevail!

ETA: Dog's round-up of the entries and announcement of the winner is now up here.What a terrific array of sandwiches - and what a huge turn-out! Great job by all the entrants, and a big thanks to DoggyBloggy aka Christo for being such a great Smackdown host!

POSITIVELY ABUNDANT!

I should subtitle this post "Oops, I did it again." Brought home a great haul of farmers market goodies this weekend, plus a plethora of bread in anticipation of Battle Sandwich for the August Culinary Smackdown: Battle Sandwich, hosted this month by DoggyBoggy at Chez What? Details here, plus he's offering a $100 gift certificate to this month's winner.

Thanks to all who commented on my last post featuring links to recipes for eggplant/aubergines and contributed to my growing list of recipes to try - especially my brand new international commenters! And a big thanks to my sister, who sent me Iowa sweet corn!

The tastiest new thing I made this weekend was Mexican street corn. I'm borrowing this pic from DoggyBloggy because I still haven't gotten through all  200+ photos I somehow managed to take this weekend..

More to come this week, including a possible round-up of corn recipe ideas. What are your favorite and different ideas for preparing in-season corn? I didn't think corn could get much better than fresh, simple, and straightforward until I finally tried this street corn version I keep reading about. But now I'm a convert.

Happy Monday to all!
eggy