Corn

Stone-ground cornmeal has more texture and corn flavor than steel-ground.

If you'd like to make the jalapeño-lime butter one day ahead, use a broiler or gas burner to char the chiles and save the grill prep for the corn.

Fresh corn from a farmers' market or a grower's farmstand will taste the sweetest.

If you can't find fresh lobsters, frozen lobster meat can be used.

Fresh kernels of raw corn are so sweet and tender that they don't need to be cooked. Their natural sugars and crisp juiciness pair wonderfully with the salty Parmesan and peppery arugula.

Denise Anderson, Lexington, Ky.
"I created this chili when my husband and I were trying to eat less meat."

When adding the flour, it's important to do so delicately. It must be cooked to remove any raw taste. This thickens the soup nicely.

This golden curry cooks quickly, so the vegetables are just tender. A flourish of mint adds the final spark.

There are times when I am inspired to make a new dessert after eating something I’ve loved. But, there are also times when my inspiration comes from eating something I didn’t even like. In that case, the impetus shifts from "how can I do something as wonderful as this," to "how can I make this better?" This sweet corn ice cream came from the latter impulse. The original dessert, sampled in a small Mexican restaurant, sounded unusual and intriguing, but turned out to be riddled with distracting icy bits of corn kernels. Still, I love the corn, and was taken with the idea of doing my own, perfectly smooth and silky corn ice cream. This is the result. It is creamy-textured and luscious, with a subtle corn taste. Since the flavor of the ice cream is wholly dependent on the sweetness of the corn, make this ice cream with the freshest corn you can find.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

These messy but irresistible ears of corn coated with cheese are a popular street snack in Mexico. For our recipe we used cotija, a crumbly, pungent, aged-curd cheese that can range in consistency from soft to very hard, depending on the brand. (We made ours with Los Fortales, a hard variety available at cheese shops and some specialty foods shops.) You can, however, substitute feta, which is more widely available. This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

In this recipe we used fresh baby lima beans (the frozen ones are excellent, too), but you can substitute any other fresh young shell beans such as fava or cranberry beans.

Make the components of this salad early in the day, then toss in the shrimp just before serving. (Buy cooked shrimp, if you like, to save a little time.) Offer cold Mexican beers and Margaritas alongside.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This American variation of a Chinese stir-fry—combined with a loaf of crusty bread—is a meal in itself.