Roasted Corn Ribs at Home
Roasted Corn Ribs at Home
Hello, this blog tell about corn ribs. That’s right, forget everything you know
about eating corn on the cob, which
shouldn’t take too long since we only do
it in a few different ways. But no matter what your preferred method,
if you master this technique and try
these, this will without a doubt become
your favourite way. OK, this really is a game changer and
super easy. Although you have to pay close attention
to this first step. Because if you don’t, there will be blood. So with that, let’s go ahead and get
started with four years of the best,
sweetest corn we can find. And the first thing we’ll do is take a
sharp knife and we’ll cut a couple inches
off the top and the bottom of the ear
since we must expose the cob in the top of the year is usually more
tender, but near the bottom that Cobb is
just like. So be very careful when you see how I’m
rocking the knife, you’re going to be
seeing a lot of that since that’s one of
the key techniques to do this safely. And then once that’s been topped and
tailed, we will stand it up on the larger
end and we’ll put our blade right in the
middle of the cob and we’ll give the knife
a few gentle taps to get this started. And once it is, we’re simply going to rock
that blade back and forth as we very
carefully apply some pressure downward. And at no point during this entire
operation do we ever have our fingertips. Anywhere remotely close to the bottom of
the knife. OK, as long as we keep our fingertips
above the knife as we slowly but surely
rock that blade down the centre of the
core, we are going to have zero chances of
cutting ourselves. And that’s it. Our ear is perfectly halved and check it
out. No blood. But hang on, we’re not out of danger. Since to make corn ribs, you have to
quarter the ear, so we’re going to use the
exact same technique again to split these
in half. And you’re going to have to settle on the
frontal view here. Since as we’re doing this, we want to be
looking right at that cob to make sure as
we’re rocking that blade down that we’re
staying perfectly, perfectly centred. And we do not want to hurry this, All
right? Even if you do this very, very slowly, it
is still only going to take you a couple
minutes. And since we’re going to keep our fingers
above the blade. We’re probably not going to cut ourselves
by going too fast, but what will happen is
your blade will move off the centre of
that cob. And you will not get a nice even cut,
which as you’ll see, is kind of important
to this entire technique. Oh, and I should mention, if you cut the
ears in half before you start to quarter
them, that is a little bit easier since
you’re only going through half as much,
but then your corn ribs aren’t. As long and not as visually impressive,
but if you’re OK with pieces half this
size, you can do that. And if you did, you probably call them
baby back corn ribs. But either way, once our ears have been
quartered as shown, we’ll transfer that
into a mixing bowl. Since before we roast these, we’re going
to sprinkle them with a dry rub just like
we do with real ribs. And for that I’m going to use some kosher
salts along with some kind of chilli
powder, and I’m using ancho. I’m also going to toss in some smoked. Since I’m not going to do mine on the
grill, but I still want a little bit of
smoky element, we’ll also do some freshly
ground black pepper as well as some ground
cumin. And then we will finish this up with a
little bit of garlic powder as well as a
little bit of onion powder. And then last but never least, a little
touch of cayenne. And once all that’s in there, we’ll simply
take a spoon and give it a mix. And it is now ready to season our corn
ribs. But before we do, to help it stick on,
we’re going to drizzle over a little bit
of vegetable oil onto the corn. And once we do that, we can grab our space
mix and we can sprinkle in anywhere between
half and 2/3 of the mixture. OK, I do
think we want to save some to sprinkle on
later, but we do want to toss this with a generous
amount now. So once that’s in, we’ll take
our hands and get in there and get in there deep. And we will toss and mix
and occasionally smear until our corn ribs
are as evenly seasoned as possible, at which point we could take these out to
the grill and cook them up until there is
caramelised as we want. But I’m not going to grill these, I’m
actually going to broil them, which is a
fantastic indoor alternative. And to do that we’ll need a foil lined
baking sheet and then on. On top of that, I’ll roll up two other
pieces of foil which are going to help our
corn ribs, which are a little bit curved,
stay in position so the surface cooks as
evenly as possible. And that’s it. Once our makeshift corn rib rack is set,
we’ll go ahead and position our corn on
top. And by using those extra pieces of foil,
we will have the maximum amount of corn
facing the heat, which since we’re using a
broiler, is going to be coming from the
top. And because these pieces are curved, if
you just put them on a flat pan, they lay
on their sides and they would still. Except all that beautiful charring and
caramelization would happen on the sides
and the surface will just not look as
good. And then before these go under the
broiler, we should already be turned on
high. I like to give one more dusting with our
spice mix. Which by the way is the same thing as a
dry rub, so if you have any of that
leftover from your last BBQ session. Feel free to use it here. And that’s it. This is not ready to place under our
broiler about 7:00 or so inches away. And we’ll let that broil for about 7
minutes, turning the pan occasionally, at
which point our cormorants are probably
going to look something like this. And then what I like to do at this point
is reposition them, turning the spots that
might not be as cooked as much towards the
heat. And then once these have been
repositioned, we can toss them back in. And then give them another 5 or 7 minutes
or till there is cooked and caramelised
and possibly charred as we want. And by the way, if the surface of some of
the ribs get as dark as you want them to
get, you can simply turn those over with
the cop side up, or should I say bone side
up so they don’t get too dark. OK, I think we definitely want some
charring, but we don’t want it to be
totally black. And that’s it. Once I repositioned, I pop those back in
for about 5 or 6 more minutes turning the
pan. And ribs as needed. And this is what mine look like when I
decided they were done. And once they are, we can remove the extra
foil and then quickly arrange these into a
single layer on the pan, which is going to
make the final step here a little easier. And that would be to drench these in
melted butter, followed by one last
sprinkling of our seasoning mix. And by the way, just because I like mine
fairly caramelised doesn’t mean you have
to cook yours this much. OK, you can eat fresh sweet corn raw so
once these ribs are hot, which is only
going to take a few minutes. They are technically ready to serve, but
the further we push it, the sweeter and
more smoky it gets. And since we’re calling these corn ribs,
that’s kind of where I want to go. But having said that, make no mistake,
these are not called corn ribs because of
the taste, but rather because of the
appearance and how they eat, which I am
just about to get into. So like I said, we’ll finish these by
brushing on copious amounts of butter,
plus as much of that extra seasoned salt
as we want before we dig in in. The genius of this method is that by
quartering the ear, we are able to get our
teeth all the way around the kernels,
which means we can get every kernel off
completely and cleanly. Plus, once the kernels are gone, you can
suck that sweet buttery Cobb bone clean,
which you can’t really do with a fully
recorded table without making everybody
feel super uncomfortable. But with these, no problem. So that’s what I did. And so enthusiastically I broke it in
half. But anyway, after eating that one right
off the pan, I went ahead and served some
up on a platter next to a little spicy
Chipotle Mayo. And I went ahead and applied even more
butter and seasoning because you really
can’t have too much. And yes, of course, I’ll tell you how to
make that dipping sauce in the written
recipe. Even though I don’t need to, it was just
Mayo, yoghurt, lime and Chipotle. And these really are so tasty. You don’t need a sauce, right? This is amazing just with the melted
butter. But having some sauce on the side does
make it a little extra special. Or you could just do some fresh lemon or
lime. But anyway, we’ll leave those final
touches up to you. I mean, you guys are after all the Barry
Gibbs of these very good corn ribs. And Speaking of staying alive, I’m not
saying they should replace pork ribs in
your diet. But every once in a while, when we’re in
the mood to go meatless, I really think
these are a fantastic alternative. Alright, when you combine the sweetness of
the corn with that fatty richness of the
butter and that spice blend reminiscent of
BBQ dry rubs, and you eat it off this Cobb
bone like we’re doing here, it really does make for a very similar
experience. And if you were going to plate these up? I would go with one year per person which
will give you 4 of these ribs which once
you finish seems like you ate more than
one year. Since it just takes a little more time and
you’re sort of tricked in eating a little
more thoughtfully. Oh, and this solves one of my major pet
peeves at a picnic, which is sitting across from someone at a
table eating corn on the cob, and they’re
only getting like half the kernels and
you’re thinking they’re kind of young for
dentures. What is wrong with them? And you want to say something, but of
course you can’t. All right? You only make that mistake once. But anyway, by serving corn ribs, you’ve
completely eliminated that terrible to
watch scene. And then the last thing before I sign off. Please keep in mind this is only a
technique, OK? Once your corn ribs are cut up, you can
season and cook those any which way you
want. And as I mentioned earlier, doing these on
a grill is probably the fastest and
easiest way to do this. Especially if the grill is already hot for
your other food. But as you saw, the broiler also works
very well, as would just a really hot
oven. But no matter how you cook these or what
you season them with, having sweet summer
corn that eats like a rib is an experience
nobody should miss. Which is why I really do hope you give
this a try soon. So please follow the links below for the
ingredient amounts. A printable written recipe. Much more info as usual, and is always. Enjoy.