Chipotle Grilled Tofu and Yucatecan Street Corn

So, it's Memorial Day Weekend, and everyone is out grilling; and grilling lots of meat. What's a vegetarian to do? Opt for the frozen, bland veggie burgers? Nope. Here are two very tasty hot-weather grilling ideas: a spicy grilled tofu that is great either as kabobs or a burger alternative, and rich grilled corn on the cob. I made the grilled tofu last weekend while out camping, and found that marinating for 24 hours really got the spicy tones heated up (read - scorching). But, I imagine that just an hour is a perfect amount of time to get the heat without the burn. The original recipe calls for achiote powder, rather than chipotle, but I was not able to find the former. If you can, give it a try. Both of these recipes come from Heidi Swanson, whose food blog, 101 cookbooks is amazing and inspiring. Equally beautiful is her book, Super Natural Cooking, which I have been scouring the last few weeks.

Chipotle Grilled Tofu

2 tablespoons achiote or chipotle powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon raw cane sugar (or brown sugar)
3 medium cloves garlic, peeled
2 big pinches of salt
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
12 ounce package of extra firm tofu, cut into 4 slabs

Whisk together achiote powder, cayenne pepper and sugar. Sprinkle the salt over the garlic, smash it with your knife, and mince it into a paste. Add this to the achiote mixture along with the lemon juice. Whisk until combined.

Place the tofu into an 8x8 baking dish and pour the achiote marinade over the tofu - flip it, flop it....make sure you get coverage on all sides, and rub the marinade into the tofu a bit. Place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Place the tofu on a medium hot grill. Brush the top of each piece of tofu with some of the leftover achiote marinade, grill until the tofu is golden on the bottom with nice grill marks (rotate the tofu 90 degrees halfway through the grilling of each side to get those nice marks). Flip, cook the other side, brush the side facing up with more leftover marinade, and cook until the bottom is golden as well. Remove and serve over a salad, on a bun with all the fixings, or any other way you can think of .

Yucatecan Street Corn

4 ears fresh corn, in husks
3/4 cup crema, for slathering
1/2 cup shredded cotija, for sprinkling
2 limes, halved
2 tablespoons pure chile powder
fine-grain sea salt (optional)

Prepare a medium - hot grill; if the temperature is right, you should be able to hold your hand a few inches above the grate for 4 or 5 seconds. To prepare the corn for gilling, remove any husks other than the inner one or two layers. Peel back the inner husks but keep them attached, and discard the silk. Pull the husks back into place to protect the kernels and grill, covered, rotating a couple of times along the way, for 10 minutes. Peel back the husk on one ear and taste for doneness before pulling the rest off the grill. Slather each with some of the crema, sprinkle with some of the cheese, and drizzle with the juice of half of a lime dipped in chile powder.