Wednesday, September 12, 2018

I Pop, You Pop...

I have been craving popcorn and have been putting interesting things on my batches...

I first put Herbes de Provence on a fresh batch and was SMITTEN. And when I go to the movies, I love having a handful of Junior Mints and then a handful of popcorn...LOVE the alternating sweet and salty.

Now I want to branch out into some other interesting flavor combinations. I always pop my own--I never buy microwave bagged popcorn: they taste bad and are bad for you. There are several ways to do this: in a stove top pan with a lid, or one of the many pots with cranks that are sold specifically for popcorn. Cooking the kernels in a vegetable oil or canola oil is best as it imparts the least amount of competing flavor to the kernels. After pouring copious amounts of real butter on the freshly popped corn, try one of these toppings:

1) Truffle Salt Popcorn with finely chopped parsley
Once the popcorn is done, coat with butter and sprinkle with truffle salt as you would with regular salt. Sprinkle with parsley.


2) Lemon-Thyme popcorn
After you've melted the butter, stir in the zest of one medium-sized lemon, 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, and a 1/2 teaspoon of minced fresh thyme leaves. Drizzle it on!


3) Parmesan-Rosemary Popcorn
Sprinkle onto popcorn 1/2 cup grated parmesan, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary and toss.


4) Mac and Cheese Popcorn
Add 1/4 cup of store-bought Mac & Cheese cheese powder to popped and buttered kernels and toss to coat.


5) Ramen Flavored Popcorn
Yes, I know it has a month's worth of sodium in it, but when your popcorn is done and buttered, sprinkle on only half a packet of Ramen seasoning.


6) Lime-Cilantro Popcorn
Mix 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, and 1/2 cup of gently torn cilantro to top your fresh popcorn!


7) Sweet and Spicy Wasabi Popcorn
This sounds like a great topping: blend together 1 teaspoon of granulated or brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sifted wasabi powder, and 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Oishii!

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