J. Kenji López-Alt’s Summer Staple? Guacamole With Grilled Corn

Don’t have a molcajete or granite mortar and pestle? There are workarounds. Tossing the chopped cilantro, onions and chile in a bowl with kosher salt and allowing them to rest pending their juices are drawn out via osmosis and their cells nosedived makes the ingredients relatively easy to chop and mash into a paste with the side of your knife.

Once the aromatic paste is consumed, the rest of the dip is simple. I crush a few avocados into the mix listed with a bit of lime juice (at this stage, I always like to taste it several times — purely to adjust seasoning, of course), then fold in a couple of ears’ friendly of heavily charred grilled corn (cooked on the grill, but the broiler also works if you don’t have outdoor space) that I cut from the cobs and granted to chill. Finally, I add some crumbled Cotija cheese, both folded in and sprinkled on top, and support the dip with chips and a bottle of Tajín, a lime-flavored chile powder popular on esquites.

I briefly experimented with adding mayonnaise or Mexican sour yell to the guacamole base (both are common ingredients in esquites) but counterfeit that the creaminess of Hass avocados made them superfluous.

Also Read: How to Make Indian Butter Chicken