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Of all anju—a catch-all term for savory dishes in Korean cuisine that are designed to go with alcoholic drinks—corn cheese is my favorite. It’s cheesy, savory, and comforting, and it goes equally well with raw ribbons of gwang-eo (fresh flounder) or a plate of oven-baked, toasty tomato spaghetti. At a restaurant, corn cheese always arrives on a hot plate, sizzling with crispy-sweet corn kernels under a blanket of melty mozzarella cheese, and as soon as I see it approaching the table, my hands unconsciously pour another shot of soju.
Corn cheese is uniquely Korean. The history of this simple dish is a little blurry, but tracing back the roots of its two main ingredients can give a bit of a clue. Mayonnaise made its way to Korea through the American troops during the Korean War, and the condiment has been used more generally since the 1970s. But, canned sweet corn became readily available and distributed to the masses in Korea a little later, around the early 1990s.
Corn cheese started as sweet corn mixed with delightfully creamy and slightly sweet mayonnaise, sizzling on a hot plate with no cheese. It was loosely called “corn butter” when the dish started becoming popular at Korean-Japanese restaurants, called il-sik jip (일식집), but after about a decade, the dish officially got the name “corn cheese.” Even though there was no cheese in the recipe initially, many people associated the slight nuttiness and creaminess of mayonnaise on corn with the taste of cheese. Soon after, people started adding mozzarella, which became an essential ingredient to make the dish.
During my recent trip to Korea, my parents and I stayed in Busan, the second largest city in the country with big ports and lots of fresh seafood. Of course, we ate at many seafood restaurants, and every place we went, we got a plate of corn cheese as a side dish as soon as we got seated, along with other assorted banchan. The sweet-and-salty, cheesy corn made us all want more, and I had to remind myself not to get too full with corn cheese before the main dish even arrived. The balance of the nicely charred corn, salty cheese, and creamy mayonnaise with speckles of fresh scallions might be why this simple dish has been so popular across all generations, from picky babies to traditional grandparents.
My love for corn cheese goes far beyond just eating at restaurants, and I’ve incorporated the staple into plenty of my own kitchen experiments. I’ve made many fun things, including corn cheese toasts, and corn cheese pizza. After my carb-heavy experiments, I knew that corn, cheese, and bread were meant to be together. And in my new cookbook, Chili Crisp, I wanted to take the idea even further by introducing a spicy new element: chili crisp.
The pleasant heat from chili crisp and garlicky crisp added a delightful kick to the sweet and creamy corn cheese. But I was craving more garlicky flavor, which led me to a recipe that captures two of my favorite things: corn cheese and garlic bread.
Garlic is the hidden common denominator in this Korean-Italian-American mashup. My corn cheese often has grated raw garlic, which gets cooked with corn under cheese, as a secret flavor boost. My chili crisp starts with scallion-gochujang-garlic oil. And in my Spicy Garlicky Corn Cheese Ciabatta Bread, garlic bridges these two components together.
The recipe goes all in on garlic flavor by introducing three different stages of garlic: roasted garlic paste, minced raw garlic, and garlic powder. Roasted garlic paste has a subtle sweetness with a jammy texture, which blends very well with softened butter, while the minced raw garlic brings that pungent, more pronounced garlic taste. Then, garlic powder ties all the other garlic flavors together.
Even though my original recipe calls for ciabatta bread as the base for this corn cheese mixture, it can really go on any carb of your choice, like store-bought pizza dough, baguette, milk toast, or even rice. But I love how ciabatta’s thick, crusty textures hold up to the powerfully flavorful corn cheese mixture. As it’s baked in the oven, all those garlicky, sweet, buttery, spicy notes get steeped into the bread, making each bite better than the last.
My love for making different types of corn cheese will never have a final destination. But my corn cheese ciabatta is a delicious, spicy pit stop along the way.
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