Sweet Corn, I miss you.

One of the sad facts of living in Florida is no fresh summer time sweet corn. Our corn season is early spring here—when and if you can find some fresh some the field (in Bradenton, FL Kings Family Farm). I greatly miss being able to go to Barn-N-Bunk or Sharp’s roadside stand to get it really fresh.
Sweet corn is best fixed simply, garnished simply, and then simply enjoyed. There is a lot of methods to fixing sweet corn. Microwave, boil, steam, grill, or roast. I believe there is only 2 ways to prepare it. 1) A large kettle of water is brought to a rolling boil with 1 T. of sugar. Toss in the shucked corn for 5 to 8 minutes. 2) Roasted on the grill. Pull back the husk, but don’t remove, gentle shape husk into a handle to hold the ear. Place the corn on a hot grill and roast until it is just getting toasted.
Top the corn with salt, pepper, and butter and eat. Then repeat. If you want to jazz it up a bit or have corn that is a little tough, I recommend these three compound butters.

Chili butter
1 stick softened unsalted butter
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. chili powder
¼ tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 T. lime juice
In a mixing bowl and using a hand mixer beat the butter until fluffy. Add all but the juice. Beat until just combined. Add juice. Whip to combine. Transfer to serving bowl, cover and chill for at least an hour to meld flavors. Serve with sweet corn. This is also good melted over popcorn.

Peppercorn-Parmesan butter
1 stick soften unsalted butter
2 T. grated Parmesan cheese
1 T. coarsely fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
In a mixing bowl and using a hand mixer beat the butter until fluffy. Add in rest of ingredients. Whip until just combined. Transfer to serving bowl, cover and chill for at least an hour to meld flavors. Serve with sweet corn. Great on baked potatoes or noodles too.

Curry butter
1 stick softened unsalted butter
1 tsp. curry powder
¼ tsp. salt
In a mixing bowl and using a hand mixer beat the butter until fluffy. Add in curry and salt. Whip until just combined. Transfer to serving bowl, cover and chill for at least an hour to meld flavors. Serve with sweet corn. This is really good on popcorn too (your hands will smell like curry for a few days).

If you have any favorite sweet corn recipes, put them in the comments below.
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