This may not seem like a biggie to you, but to those of us having a tough time getting hold of authentic Mexican or even American ingredients, it is.

I found an NL based Mexican webstore the other week, probably belonging to a home-sick Mexican trying to suppress his true emotions about the bland food we tend to eat here.

Anyway, I placed an order even though it meant I had to pony up an insane amount of euros for just a can of tomatillo’s. What can I say? I’m a tomatillo virgin. It had to happen sooner or later.

I also bought a tortilla press. Holy smokes, there’s such a liberal amount of silver paint on that thing and it seems to come off a wee bit to easily. So it’s not completely unthinkable I’ll die from lead poisoning soon. Who will I leave Kayotic Kitchen to?

I also found a recipe for ancho chile butter on their recipe section. Had to try it. What can I say? I was also an ancho chile virgin.

But not anymore…

 
Ingredients:

4 ears of corn
6 oz butter
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 dried ancho chile
1 tsp honey
pinch of salt

Directions:

You can also use a stove top grill for this recipe. I used my BGE.

 
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was to finally get my hands on these chiles. They’re wonderfully smokey and sweet.

I soaked the corn in water with a bit of sugar in it for about 15 to 30 minutes.

Toast the chili for about 30 seconds over an open flame. Love how it uncurls itself.

I loved roasted corn, but don’t like it all burned, so I use vegetable holders. The corn will cook perfectly and because of the angle the heat can circulate around them, plus, it doesn’t take up all the space on the grill.

 
I gave the corn 15 minutes on the grill at at 400˚F (200˚C).
 

Looks kinda freaky like this, doesn’t it? I removed the stem and seeds and gave the chile a quick blitz in the food processor. It’ll stay somewhat coarse.

Add the butter, a pinch of salt and the lemon juice. I’m conservative where it comes to salt, you can always sprinkle some on top of your corn later on.

 
I forgot to put my butter out of the fridge so it was cold when I used it. It still worked like a charm.
 

I had a novel idea: why not add a splash of honey?

 
It wasn’t until after I googled it I found out this is actually a very common addition. Shucks. Thought I was unique.
 

The compound butter had a gorgeous orange color and wonderful flavor. Slightly sweet, slightly salty and slightly smokey. Perfect, really.

After 15 minutes the corn was all done. It was so juicy.

Apply a nice scoop of butter on the hot corn and watch it melt. Add a little salt, bite into it and be happy.

 
Note:

I stuck to the recipe as I found it on mexworld.nl, but next time I’m going to add some garlic and a bit of heat. Probably cayenne pepper.