Elote Grilled Corn Porridge Recipe

It’s Labor Day! Celebrate the end of summer and a bountiful harvest with this delicious Grilled Corn Porridge! You may be thinking: who dreams of porridge in the summer? We certainly do. But this isn’t your winter’s porridge – this is the summer harvest, going down in a smoldering blaze of delicious glory. It’s time to fire up that grill, daddy (disclaimer: Porridge.blog is an equal opportunity grill handler).

We took inspiration from Elote – the ubiquitous and awesome Mexican street food – for this corn porridge. Grilled corn-on-the-cob, chile powder, lime, salt, cream – what more could you want? (the answer is cilantro, of which we added a hearty sprinkling)

Elote Grilled Corn Porridge Recipe

It starts with favorite of ours, a simple corn porridge, made like old school creamed corn. It works perfectly fine with nothing but fresh grated corn and butter. However, we usually add a little chopped onion and sometimes garlic to the butter for a more complex flavor.

In a big bowl or cutting board, cut the kernels off a fresh cob, then use the back of the knife to grate the cob for all the remaining milky bits of kernel – use some elbow grease for this part.
Food process half of the grated corn until it looks like this:
In a skillet over medium-low heat, melt butter and add onion and garlic, if using. Once the onion is gently sizzling, add both pureed and fresh corn. Simmer and stir occasionally. Grate fresh pepper and salt to taste. This is the corn porridge.

Meanwhile, grill some more corn! More corn! Everyone has their preference on grilled corn – we recommend husking the cobs, brushing them with butter, and grill until most of the cob is golden and you’ve got some nice toasty brown kernels throughout. As the cobs cool, shave off the kernels, just like you did with the fresh corn.

Add the grilled corn to the top of the porridge, along with some fresh lime juice, a bit of cilantro, some crumbly cheese like queso fresco or cotija, chile powder and paprika (or premixed at the store as Tajín), and cream (this can be crema mexicana or good ‘ol sour cream; we love crema salvadoreña).

Serve your elote porridge as an appetizer, side dish, or main course. We paired it with some orca beans (which are pretty fast and very tasty) and more grilled vegetables. For the porridge, 1-2 cobs per person for a side dish, 2-4 cobs for a main course.