Making my Favorite Snack: Popcorn
This week for Lisa’s Try a New Recipe Tuesday, I’m talking about Making my Favorite Snack: Popcorn. Sometimes I think the main reason I went to the movies when I was younger, was just for the popcorn. In fact when I worked at the mall, I would sometimes stop at the movie theater just to buy popcorn! There was something about “Movie Theater Popcorn” that just could not be replicated at home. And the microwave “movie theater butter” flavor? Um no. It just isn’t. Besides being incredibly bad for your with all those chemicals, it doesn’t taste (to me anyway) anything at all like the movie theater popcorn I ate on so many Friday nights.
I rarely go to the movie theater anymore and the last time I ate it, the popcorn just didn’t seem to be as good as I remembered. (Still way better than that nasty microwave stuff that is clearly mislabeled as “movie theater butter”.
Popcorn remains one of my favorite snack foods. I eat it less often than I use to but I still eat it several times a week. And I don’t feel guilty. Popcorn is not a refined food filled with refined white flour and white sugar. I do have concerns about GMO corn products so I’m going to go back to purchasing this: Azure Organic Popcorn. (We used to order from Azure regularly. We’re taking little steps to get back to eating better.)
Tess’s Favorite Popcorn:
You will need:
One stir crazy popcorn popper (or a heavy pot with lid, or one of those stove top popcorn poppers that allow you to stir while it pops.) You could use an air popper but it won’t give you the same flavor because you need the oil. The oil is the key!
Coconut Oil: About 1 tablespoon for each 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels. I use about 2 tablespoons:
Popcorn Kernels: I always use at least 1/2 cup because my Stir Crazy is large
Better Butter: (or just butter but better butter adds to the movie theater likeness and is healthier than just butter) About 2-3 tablespoons or to taste. Melted. Get my Better Butter Recipe here.
Salt: (I say salt but I never use plain old table salt. I usually use Med Sea Salt but lately I’ve been using Himalayan Pink Salt because [I hope] it has more minerals in it.) to taste. Just a little goes a long way. Don’t use too much. Just enough to “pop” the flavors! I like salt but too much really does ruin it.
Bowl: I like using a bowl so that I can layer and then stir.
I always use my Stir Crazy Popper so you’ll need to adjust if using a different method. I plug in my Stir Crazy and add the coconut oil so that it can melt. Once the coconut oil melts I add the popcorn kernels and make sure I put the lid in place. Listen until popping slows/ends. I usually put the black cover over the vent holes and flip the bowl right away.
Now here’s where the extra bowl comes in: I put a layer of popcorn and drizzle some of the melted butter and a twist of the salt grinder. I do enough layers to fill the bowl about 3/4 of the way full. I want room to stir! I grab my Pampered Chef Bamboo Spoon and stir it up so that the butter and salt gets more evenly distributed. Usually I still have popcorn in the popper’s bowl. I add the last of the melted butter and a bit of salt to that and stir it up with the same bamboo spoon. Now it’s time to eat!
[NOTE: Pictures are not yet available! I’ll update this post when I have some good pictures of making popcorn!]
I love popcorn too and have a friend with a Stir Crazy. She makes kettle corn too, I think. Do they still sell those? Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas. :)
ReplyDeleteOooh, I just looked online. They sell them at Target.
ReplyDelete