Skillet Fried Corn

I'm having a hard time grasping the fact that next week, it'll be August. Summer, my friends, is thisclose to being over, which is all the more reason to stop complaining about the heat (myself included) and start taking care of that summer checklist of things to do and foods to eat before it's too late. My personal list includes at least one more weekend in Montauk, assembling a good oyster po boy, flying off to Mallorca (or Greece?) for a long vacation by the sea, and consuming as much sweet corn as humanly possible.

That last item, fortunately, is just about the easiest task I've ever given myself, especially with recipes like this one waiting to be made. This skillet fried corn is ready in a snap and extra delicious--something I attribute at least partly to the fact that it's fried in bacon fat, giving it some smoky heft. Yum. Recipe down below. Photos by Mark Iantosca. xo

Skillet Fried Corn
Adapted from A Southerly Course, by Martha Hall Foose
Ingredients:
8 ears fresh corn, kernels cut off
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon bacon grease (just fry up a couple of pieces of bacon in the same pan you're using to make the corn in and leave the grease in there)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
In a large skillet set over high heat, cook the corn in the butter and bacon grease for 4 minutes or until it begins to brown. Add the garlic, season heavily with salt and pepper, and cook for 1 minute. Watch out as this stuff starts to pop from the heat, so it can be a bit messy to cook. Fair warning.