Grilled mealies

Grilled mealies give your corn a vibrant and delicious flavour.

1. Boil your mealies in their jackets in a little water; generally about five-minutes but longer if they are more mature.
2. Peel back their jackets, remove the silks and then tug them up again.
   
3. Drop them in their jackets on the BBQ until golden-brown; about fifteen minutes.
4. Turn the cobs regularly to prevent burning.
   

The sauce

Using a stick-blender mix together the following ingredients.

1. 10 ml mayonnaise
2. A slosh of olive-oil
3. Half a peeled-lime, including the pulp
   
4. Two peppadews, or less chili
5. A clove or two of garlic
6. A chunk of feta-cheese

Or enjoy with one of these herb and spice butters.

The sauce should be fairly thick. Place it in a small-bowl for your guests to spoon the mixture directly onto the hot, grilled mealies should they choose. There is nothing wrong with plain young corn on the cob; add a little salt and butter, of course.

Like all vegetables, mealies that find their way into the pot within a few hours of being harvested taste quite delectable; before the sweet-sugars are turned into starch.

If you are serious about your grilled mealies then it is best to grow the corn yourself.

The debate about GMO and Roundup is going to continue for years, one suspects, though the massive-compensation that Monsanto has recently been charged may well foreshorten that; the company could be bankrupt before long.

When you buy a mealie you have little control over whether it is a GMO product or not; and if the ground was treated with Roundup. But if you purchase the seed yourself and grow the corn in your own garden, then you have every advantage; freshly picked, not genetically-modified nor sprayed with potentially toxic ecocides.

How to grow corn is not rocket-science but some effort is needed. Oddly most of the work is removing the plants from the ground after harvesting; the big plus is that the dried stalks make wonderful compost. 

This wild, untidy garden produces more than half the food we enjoy; dairy products, olive oil and small amounts of meat excepted.

Grilled mealies

Grilled mealies are full of goodness, especially the zeaxanthin which is so important for the eyes.

It is estimated that about five-million Americans are needlessly blind because of a deficiency of two very important carotenoids found almost exclusively in high concentration in the macula of the eye^[1].

Many more are partially-sighted.

Zeaxanthin is found in mealies and other vegetables; for example orange peppers and summer squash. Lutein is richly located in greens like kale and spinach. With insufficient of these two phytochemicals, particularly in smokers, the risk of adult-onset blindness rises exponentially.

Notice too that the sauce for your grilled mealies is nutritious and great tasting in its own right, provided you use a high-quality mayonnaise.

Hot freshly-grilled mealies will be a hit at any braai. Give them a try.

A green mealie risotto is another favourite at our home; whole grains like brown rice and unrefined corn are extremely nutritious, but we do advocate taking a short walk after any starchy foods. Then the sugars are used up as glycogen rather than raising blood glucose. Many of us are pre-diabetic.

Microwaved mealies

Place the whole cob in its jacket into the microwave; four minutes for each one. Then cut off the bottom of the husk and it will slip right out, clean as a whistle. The food snobs say keep your cooking simple.

Growing mealies

Like most vegetables growing corn is not difficult. All they need is some rich compost and protection from strong-winds.

We like to grow them between fences that are heavy in lima beans, for example, giving some protection against the fierce winds.

Compost heaps provide the humus that plants need to absorbe nutrients from the soil; we add vermi-manure and allow the chickens to wander through the mealies picking out grubs and cutworms.

Until I learned to define humus, I thought it was the same as compost; not so.

Corn and beans

Nutritionally speaking corn and beans complement each other; cooked together or at least enjoyed at the same meal you get a far better balance of all the "essential" amino-acids; those we cannot survive without. Nearly one third of South African children are permanently stunted because their parents won't take this seriously.

Adding sunflower seeds is another good option; they have all the essential amino-acids.

Succotash uses lima beans^[2], one of our great favourites with green mealies sliced off the cob. The dish is particularly rich in magnesium^[3].

Once you understand about net carbs you need not be afraid of starches again unless you are an unstable diabetic. It's the cake flour, refined maizemeal and sugar that bedevil us; all the fibre and nutrients have been extracted and sold to the pig farmer. The hogs eat a lot more healthily than most humans.

Are mealies from the Devil's pantry?

Nutrition like clothing is subject to fashion; eggs are in, margarine is out. There is currently a wave of carb-bashing.

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