CSA Cookoff: Grilled Pizza de Elote (Mexican Street Corn Pizza!)

CSA COOKOFF: WHAT CAME IN LAST WEEK’S FARM SHARE & HOW WE USED IT

1. Sweet corn: See this week’s recipe, below.

2. Swiss chard: This went into a makeshift gumbo with numbers 3 and 5, plus a dollop of harissa to kick it up a notch. Bam!

3. Spring onions: See numbers 2 and 4.

4. Green beans: Stir-fried, also with harissa, for an improvised version of Sichuan green beans.

5. Bell pepper: See number 2.

6. Mint: Mojitos. (At right, that’s herb farmer Nasrin Morovaty, whom we met on our CSA’s open farm tour last week.)

7. Beets: Roasted, chilled, and sliced into slaw with number 9.

8. Blackberries: Breakfast dessert.

9. Cabbage: See number 7.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPE:
GRILLED PIZZA DE ELOTE
My partner-in-cooking and I love elote, AKA Mexican street corn, AKA those decadent roasted ears that come doused in mayo, cayenne, and crumbly cheese. We also love pizza. And yet, when he raised the idea of elote pizza, we both hesitated. Would it be genius? Or would it be the case of two wonderful things adding up to less than the sum of their parts? At the hazard of wasting even an ear of precious sweet corn—especially this week, when we had just seen how hard farmers work—we went for it. Scratch that: He went for it, and I reaped the benefit. The delicious, top-five-pizzas-ever benefit. Sometimes great risks bring drool-worthy rewards.

FOR THE DOUGH
» 1 cup water
» 2 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for brushing the dough
» 2 ½ cups bread or AP flour
» ½ tsp salt
» 1 tsp active dry yeast

FOR THE TOPPINGS
» 3 ears corn, with husks pulled down to form a handle and reveal kernels
» ¼ lb raw shrimp, peeled (or thawed and peeled if you start with frozen)
» 1 Tbsp mayo
» 8 oz cotija cheese
» 1 tsp cayenne or chili powder
» ½ lime
» 1 Tbsp cilantro, roughly chopped (optional)

Prepare the pizza dough following the same steps as in this CSA Cookoff. Once it’s ready, remove the dough from the bread machine and roll it out. Preheat the grill on high. Brush the top of the dough with oil then flip it onto the grill, oiled side down. Adjust with tongs if the dough folds in on itself. Turn the heat down to medium-low and grill for 3 minutes then remove.

Crank the heat back to high and grill the corn 15 to 20 minutes, rotating every 5 (more details here from Bobby Flay). When the corn is almost done, add the shrimp and grill 1 minute per side. Remove both from heat.

Brush the ungrilled side of the dough with oil then flip it onto a paddle or baking sheet, oiled side down. Lightly brush the already-grilled side with more oil then spread on a thin layer of mayo and crumble on the cheese. Cut the kernels from the cobs and sprinkly them on the dough. Place the shrimp and dust with cayenne.

Shimmy the pizza back onto the grill, toppings side up, turn the heat back down to medium-low, and grill for 8 minutes, covered. Remove the pizza, spritz with lime juice, and sprinkle with cilantro. Buen provecho and happy farm sharing!

STILL HUNGRY?
CSA Cookoff is an ongoing series devoted to putting farm share bounty to good use. What did you get this week? And what did you make with it? Post a comment or photo and share the farm share love!