One of the best things about the summer – at least in terms of food – is that fresh corn becomes available.  No longer do we have to rely on frozen corn, canned corn, or corn shrink wrapped and flown in from somewhere else.  Instead, every supermarket and every produce stand on the street has a barrel full of corn just waiting to be husked and bitten into.  So every year when this season comes around we love to buy up some corn and find new and delicious ways to eat it.  Luckily for us, we came across several good and easy ideas for ways to prepare corn, and here we’ll show you how we adapted each of these recipes for ourselves.

First, here’s how you can prepare the corn, even if all you have is a stovetop:  once you’ve removed all the husks, turn two adjacent burners to medium-high heat and place a rack on top of them.  Put your corn on the rack and use metal tongs to turn each cob occasionally so that they cook evenly on all sides.  After about 5 minutes the corn should be nicely charred and tender.

The first corn we made was masala corn (based on this recipe from Bon Appétit) – for this one, you’ll want to bring 2 tablespoons of butter to room temperature, then mix with 1 1/2 tablespoons of garam masala.

Once your corn is nicely grilled, spread this butter mixture on each cob and top with cotija cheese.

For something a little sweeter, you can whip up some spicy honey butter corn (adapted from this New York Times recipe).  Melt 3 tablespoons of butter and stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey and a teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

Spread this on grilled corn and top with a handful of chopped parsley.

Finally, for our pièce de résistance corn (based on a different Bon Appétit recipe):  mix together 1/4 cup of sour cream, 1/4 cup of mayo, a tablespoon of gochujang, the zest and juice from a lime, and 1/2 teaspoon of chile powder.  Finely chop a garlic clove and about a tablespoon of parsley leaves and stir those in too.

Spread this on some corn (it’s a lot of sauce, so this will cover at least half a dozen cobs of corn) and top with cotija cheese and more chopped parsley.

These were each pretty easy recipes, because all you have to do is gather a few ingredients, mix them up, and slather your sauces on some grilled corn.  Put them all together and you can make yourself a grilled corn buffet – that’s what we did for dinner one night, and it was nice to sample a couple of different types of corn.  Each of these varieties is spicy in its own way and leans on flavors from different parts of the world, so you really do get a diversity of tastes.  Grilled corn is so versatile, and trying out some new things in the summer makes for a great and interesting seasonal meal or some really interesting accompaniments to whatever else you’re cooking up.