Win!

Ok. So I’ll be completely honest. Even though I posted the poll on Friday regarding foods that I’d like to make while re-doing Macheesmo, it turns out that I was so busy doing that thing that I didn’t even have time to make food!

But never mind that. I still wanted to make something based on the winning pick: Popcorn!

I’ve made a few popcorn recipes before on Macheesmo but this one seriously might be my favorite. It’s subtly sweet, but not overly sweet and has a small kick from the paprika. Betsy and I tried it and at first I didn’t think it was all that great. Then I looked down 30 minutes later and I had almost eaten the whole bowl.

The stuff was like a drug. I couldn’t stop!

Spicy Kettle Corn

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup popcorn kernels
1/4-1/3 Cup canola oil
1/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon paprika
Pinch of kosher salt

Directions:

1) Mix sugar and spice together in a small bowl.

2) Add oil and a few kernels to a medium-large pot. Cover and put over high heat until the kernels pop, just a few minutes. That means the oil is hot!

3) Remove the cooked kernels so they don't burn. Add all the unpopped kernels and cover with the sugar/spice mixture. If the oil isn't barely covering the kernels, add a bit more oil.

4) Cover with lid and put back on heat. Every few seconds, hold the lid down and give the pot a good shake to make sure none of the kernels are sitting on the bottom burning. Also, you need to coat the kernels with sugar evenly.

5) Once most of the kernels have popped (the popping will slow to a few seconds in between), remove them from the pot as soon as possible so they don't burn.

6) Season right away with salt but let the kernels cool for a few minutes before serving. The cooling will let the sugar harden a bit which gives the popcorn great texture.

Kettle Corn

Kettle corn is normally made in huge copper pots at state fairs and stuff. It’s some crazy cross between caramel corn and normal popcorn so it’s slightly sweet and a little crunchy, but also salty. In other words, it’s right in my wheelhouse as far as snack foods go!

Basic stuff...

If you’ve never made popcorn that isn’t microwaved, just trust me that it’s another world and once you make the switch you’ll have a really hard time going back. Good news is that it’s really easy to make and while this kettle corn is kind of cheating because most people don’t have access to a huge copper pot, it’s pretty darn close to the real deal.

First, you need some sugar and a bit of spice. The spice is optional but I think it adds a great dimension to the popcorn. Subtle is the key here people. A little goes a long way.

A little goes a long way.

Testing the waters

The key to this recipe is not to put the kernels and sugar into the pot until the oil is really hot. That way the kernels start popping almost immediately and the sugar has time to caramelize but not burn at all.

To make this happen add the oil to a medium to large pot and add just a few kernels. Put this over high heat with a lid.

This is just a test of the emergency popcorn system.

When these pop, you know you’re oil is ready to rock. Quickly remove those kernels from the pop and add all your kernels at once and cover with the sugar. If the oil doesn’t cover the kernels just barely, add a bit more oil.

It should basically look like this.

Act quickly!

Cover this and put it back over medium-high heat. Every few seconds, hold the lid on the pot and give it a good shake to make sure none of the kernels are sitting on the bottom too long. As the sugar melts, you also want to evenly cover all the kernels with the sugar and spice.

It’ll only take a minute or two for the kernels to pop since the oil is already so hot.

Magic is happening in there...

Once most of the kernels have popped (the popping is a few seconds apart), immediately pull the pot off the burner and pour the kernels into a bowl. If you leave them for too long in the pan you run the risk of burning the popcorn and the sugar. So once it’s popped, get it the heck out of there.

I actually found that this popcorn is better if it cools a bit so the sugar hardens kind of. So hit the popcorn with a good pinch of salt and then let it cool for a few minutes. Try to break up any kernels that stick together.

It’ll be delicious.

This makes me smile.

I’m really proud about a few things in this post.

First, that I made some delicious popcorn and hopefully inspired you to try out some real popcorn that isn’t microwaved.

Second, I’m really happy that I believe I caught and fixed all of my poopcorn typos throughout this post before publishing it.

I abandoned microwave popcorn years ago and have never really looked back. Popcorn is dirt cheap and once you know how to correctly make it on the stove you can experiment with all kinds of interesting toppings. I’ve made two other varieties of popcorn before on Macheesmo, the caramel variety in that post is especially delicious.

One of the things I’ve been trying out more recently is using whole spices and mixing my own spice mixtures. A few weeks ago I worked out a pretty solid Five Spice powder and turns out you can put it on popcorn!

Not shabby!

There are a lot of different varieties of five spice powder, but most involve something with some heat, something with an anise flavor, cinnamon, and in most cases clove. It’s normally put on cuts of meat like duck and chicken, but I figured it might work great on popcorn.

The nice thing about this spice powder is that it is pretty flexible. If you like more heat, add more peppercorns. If you don’t like anise so much, substitute the fennel seeds or star anise with something like ground ginger or maybe coriander.

Below is the mix I made and I thought it was a good start, but if you try this, taste it and adjust to your liking.

Five Spice Popcorn

Yield: A big bowl of popcorn

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Five Spice Powder:
1 part ground cloves (1/2 Teaspoon)
2 part Cassia or cinnamon (1 Teaspoon)
6 parts fennel seed (1 Tablespoon)
6 parts star anise (about 8.)
12 parts Szechuan peppercorn (2 Tablespoons)

Helpful Equipment:
Spice Grinder (Nothing fancy, but this one gets the job done.)

Directions:

1) Lightly toast spices for a few minutes over medium heat.

2) Grind up in spice grinder.

3) Get a medium to large saucepan. It needs a tight fitting lid.

4) Sprinkle some popcorn kernels in the bottom of the pan until they cover the bottom in a single layer. If you do any more than that, they most likely won’t all pop.

5) Pour in vegetable or canola oil until the oil just covers the kernels.

6) Put the lid on tight and put it over medium-high heat. In a few minutes the kernels should start popping! Once they do, hold the lid on the pot with one hand and gentle shake the pan with the other hand.

7) After about a minute or two, the kernels should all (or mostly) be popped!

8) Pour the popcorn into a bowl and sprinkle some salt and five spice powder on it right away while it’s still hot.

I tried to use all whole spices for this powder. If you are interested in trying this out but can’t find some of these, I highly recommend Penzeys Spices. They sell quality stuff. Also, if you live in a metropolitan area, you can probably find most of these at an Asian market.

Smells good!

I used a good amount of peppercorns cause I wanted some heat to the powder. I think I may actually up it even more if I were to make this again. I think the ratios I listed above are a good starting point though. Adjust according to your tastes as I said.

For the whole spices, I decided to lightly toast them to bring out some of the flavors even more. The peppercorns definitely benefited from the toasting. I’m actually not sure that I would toast the others if I was making it again. I don’t know that it added much and you run the risk of burning them.

Toasting these guys is a good idea.

If you do toast them up, just keep a close eye on them. They will only need a few minutes over medium heat.

Then buzz them up in your spice grinder! You should end up with a pretty fine powder. It’s okay to have some difference in sizes though. It gives it some texture.

Be careful with the fumes!

Oh and don’t forget the fifth ingredient! I used this Vietnamese stuff because I have a mild spice addiction. It definitely is more intense than the normal cinnamon, but I think you could use the normal stuff and be just fine.

Go light with this stuff.

Making the popcorn

Making popcorn on the stove is super easy. Once you try it once you’ll never go back. It honestly takes about the same time as microwave popcorn. Ok. Maybe it takes like five minutes total, but it’s SO much better.

Get a medium to large saucepan. I’ve made popcorn in a bunch of different pots over the years and the only really important thing is that it has a tight fitting lid.

Sprinkle some popcorn kernels in the bottom of the pan until they cover the bottom in a single layer. If you do any more than that, they most likely won’t all pop.

Then pour in vegetable or canola oil until the oil just covers the kernels. For this version I tried adding a little butter also, but I think just oil works best.

Just covered is the key. I poured some of this out.

Put the lid on tight and put it over medium-high heat. In a few minutes the kernels should start popping! Once they do, hold the lid on the pot with one hand and gentle shake the pan with the other hand. The goal is to keep the kernels moving so they don’t burn while also keeping the pan on the heat. After about a minute or two, the kernels should all (or mostly) be popped!

Pour the popcorn into a bowl and sprinkle some salt and five spice powder on it right away while it’s still hot.

Adjust the spice and salt to your tastes, but that’s pretty much it!

Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks.

This isn’t exactly how five spice powder is intended to be used, but I found it to be pretty good. If I were to make it again, I think I would increase the peppercorn and maybe add some coriander or something to give it a bit more complexity. I think the real key is to go light on the cinnamon. It can very quickly overpower the spice mix.

You can store any leftover spice mix in an airtight container.

Has anyone else made this before or have any other spices suggestions? Leave a comment!

]]> http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/09/five-spice-popcorn/feed/ 10 http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/01/game-day-popcorn-curried-and-carameled/ http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/01/game-day-popcorn-curried-and-carameled/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:51:53 +0000 Nick http://www.macheesmo.com/?p=1987 If you are a college football fan, tonight is your night. The BCS National Championship is tonight which is supposed to tell us who’s the nation’s best college football team. Why have a tournament when you can have a crazy computer program figure out who should be playing in one game to decide all the marbles? End rant.

If you miss this game though, then there are the NFL Playoffs. Sometime in the next few weeks you are most likely going to watch a football game and you will need some snacks for this. One of my default snacks is homemade popcorn.

Salty and sweet. Can't go wrong.

I’m not really sure how the microwave popcorn industry has survived this long. I mean, I like microwaved popcorn if I’m at work or on the road or something, but if I’m at home it takes just a few more minutes to make real popcorn. Oh and it costs cents per bowl.

If you didn't know, corn is cheap.

I bought this whole bag for $.99. I’ll get probably 10-12 large bowls of popcorn from it. For this post, I made one batch of popcorn (about 10-12 cups) and then did two different things with it: one salty and one sweet.

Below is how I make my homemade popcorn and it is practically fail proof. Take a medium-sized pan and cover the bottom of it with kernels. Then cover those kernels with a layer of vegetable oil until all the kernels are just covered. No measuring or anything. Just do that.

One quick note. There are two or three different kinds of popcorn kernels. Some are fluffier and larger. I got just the normal yellow kernel for this recipe. The cooking process is the same no matter what you choose.

It's not as much oil as it looks.

Put the lid on this pot and stick it over medium heat. Then don’t touch it until the kernels start to pop. Should just take a few minutes.

Meanwhile, I prepped my curry salt.

Simple curry seasoning.

Curry Seasoning

- 1 Teaspoon curry powder
- 1 Teaspoon seasons salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon basil
- 1/2 Teaspoon salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon cumin

This amount of spice should be enough for a whole batch of popcorn unless you like it really spicy. Obviously you can make as much as you want and I encourage you to adjust according to your tastes.

What’s that I hear? By the time you mix all those things together, your kernels will probably be popping. This is the only tricky part of the situation and sorry I couldn’t take a photo of it but I was busy. It isn’t that hard. Just lift your pan a bit above the burner and shake back and forth. Don’t take the lid off. In fact, I like to hold the lid down with one hand while I shake with the other. You want to keep all of that steam trapped in there but move the unpopped kernels back and forth so they don’t burn to the bottom.

Should only take a minute or so for the popping to be done. You won’t hear any more popping and the kernels will most likely be hugging the top of your pan. Now you can take the lid off and pour it straight into a bowl. Ideally, you won’t have any unpopped kernels.

If you are doing the curry spice or just salt, do it right away while the kernels are hot.

Season this while hot if possible.

Like I said, I split up my bowl and curried up one half and reserved one half for the caramel side.

I’ve been making caramel corn from scratch for a few years now and I can guarantee you that it is much better than that stuff you get in Christmas tins (and that stuff isn’t so bad).

You’ll need these things:

Caramel deconstructed.

Caramel Corn

- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 Teaspoon salt
- 1/4 Teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 10 cups popcorn

First, preheat your oven to 250. Yes. 250. Then melt your butter in a medium saucepan and add in your light brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Keep stirring this over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves completely. That will only take a minute. Then: Don’t touch it.

This is super easy.

This won’t burn unless you forget about it. Stay close but don’t stir it. It will start to bubble which is good. Let it bubble for about 5 minutes.

Getting close...

Then you need to go from watching to working. And you need to move pretty fast. Add your vanilla and your baking soda to the pan. When you add the baking soda, give it a quick stir. The baking soda will make it start to bubble even more. Take it off the heat and right away pour it over your popcorn.

This is no time to lollygag.

Then stir it together real well to combine evenly. Pour your popcorn into a baking dish and pop it in that oven.

Ready to bake. Low and slow.

This will need to cook for 1 hour at 250 and you need to stir it every 15 minutes. Trust me. It is worth it. Once an hour is up, pour your caramel corn out onto some parchment paper to cool. You could also just pour it out on your counter if it is super clean. Spread out your corn as much as you can so the kernels don’t clump too much.

Dogfish head siting!

I like to serve popcorn with a salty and sweet option. The curry is good. The caramel is good. Feel free to make one or the other, but when served together that spot in the middle where you get some curry and some caramel is absolutely perfect.

I promise once you make this stuff homemade you won’t be buying much of the microwaved stuff.