Spiced Indian Corn (Vaghareli Makai)

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The farmer I purchase corn from at our farmer's market says the corn should keep growing until December, if there's no rain. I'm taking full advantage, and I've recently been transforming that corn into this ginger-y, peanut-y corn dish.

Vaghareli Makai is a warm Indian corn salad that cooks in two minutes. The work, if you can even call it that, is in the mise en place prep. Before placing a skillet on the heat, you want to cut the corn off the cob, measure out the dried spices and chop/mince the aromatics (ginger, garlic, and chili). After the prep, it's just a matter of layering ingredients into the skillet. The mustard seeds cook for 30 seconds, next the corn is added in to cook for about two minutes, then the aromatics are stirred through to cook one more minute until fragrant. This corn at this point should still be crisp and bright. Roasted peanuts and cilantro are tossed in off the heat, and I make it a meal by serving the corn over harissa lentils and sometimes brown rice seasoned with some form of hot sauce.

Spiced Indian Corn

Serves 4
Notes: This spiced corn is great on it’s own as a side dish. But I like turning it into a meal by serving over harissa lentils (recipe below) and sometimes brown rice seasoned with a hot sauce, or tossing it with quinoa and greens. Recipe slightly adapted from Heidi Swanson’s cookbook, Near & Far

• 4 medium-large ears of corn

• 2 small red chilies (or 1 jalapeno)

• 2 medium cloves garlic

• 1 (1-inch/2.5 cm) piece of ginger, peeled

• 2 Tbsp. butter, ghee or cold-pressed avocado oil

• 1 1/2 tsp. yellow or brown mustard seeds

• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric

• 3/4 tsp. sea salt

• 1 lemon, divided

• 1/2 cup (55 gr) roasted peanuts

• 1 cup (30 gr) chopped cilantro

1. Cut corn off cob. (I like to stand the ear of corn up in a wide bowl, and cut from the middle down so the fly-away kernels are caught in the bowl. Repeat with remaining half of the ear by standing it up from the other end and cutting down.)

2. Finely chop chilies and mince garlic and ginger. (For quick work, I prefer to grate the garlic and ginger on a sharp microplane.)

3. Heat butter or oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mustard seeds and cook until they begin to pop (~30 seconds). Add corn and stir briefly to coat in mustard seed oil. Cook for 2 minutes.

4. Stir in chopped chilies, garlic, and ginger, along with turmeric and salt. Cook another 30-60 seconds until fragrant and corn is bright yellow but still crisp.

5. Remove from heat and stir in the juice of 1/2 lemon (or to taste) and most of the cilantro and peanuts.

6. Serve over harissa lentils and top with extra cilantro, peanuts and a squeeze of lemon. For larger appetites or guests, I'll also serve brown rice (and a hot sauce to flavor the rice) for those who'd like to combine rice and lentils as their base.

Harissa Lentils

• 1 1/2 cups (330 gr) green lentils, cooked

• 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 heaped Tbsp. harissa (in a jar), or to taste

• Juice from 1 medium lemon

• 1 medium garlic clove, minced

• 3/4 tsp. salt

• Handful fresh cilantro (with tender stems), chopped

1. Mix together the olive oil, harissa, lemon, garlic and salt in the bottom of a large, deep mixing bowl.

2. Add warm cooked lentils and stir from the bottom up until lentils are well coated in harissa dressing. Fold through cilantro and serve with corn.