[Food:Kettle Corn] Why do the bad things feel so good?

[surrealestate]

Not all new skills provide a net benefit to one's life.

I have discovered that I can make really amazingly good kettle corn at home quite easily. So can you. But that doesn't mean you should.

Nor does it mean you should throw in a teaspoon or so of chili powder as a variation, as if merely sweet and salty weren't enough.

Since I know one person will ask, I'll include my recipe.


I warned you.

I read a dozen or so recipes for kettle corn and through trial and error (having now made the stuff a total 4 or 5 times, but that's in the past 4 or 5 days), came up with this method, which looks very much like every other method you'll find out there.

Ingredients, in order of appearance, more or less:
1/4 c (scant, or less) oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder (or other spicing, optional)
1/2 c popcorn
1/4 c sugar

Directions:

1. Put a high-sided pot with a nice thick base and tight-fitting lid over medium-high heat and add oil and salt. Oil should coat the bottom of the pan. Toss in 2 corn kernels.

2. When the kernels pop, the oil is hot enough. Remove them (a fork works well). Add the seasoning, and swish it a bit to distribute.

3. Add the popcorn, quickly sprinkle the sugar over the top, and put on the lid.

4. When the kernels start popping (it won't take long) keep shaking the pot. I found alternately letting its it on the burner briefly and then removing to shake worked well. Keep at it until the popping stops. I needed oven mitts for this because the pot gets *very* hot.

5. That's all. Open the pot away from you to get the steam escape, pour out the popcorn and eat. Then make more and eat that. Etc.

What's amazing is that in the end, there are usually three or fewer inedible unpopped kernels left, which is way fewer than any other popping method I've used, though I admit I'd never stove-top popped before this, since I generally prefer air-popping. I'm not going to try dumping sugar into my air-popper, though.


[Up-to-the-minute Squash Inventory: 7 Butternut, 7 Delicata, 4 Pumpkin]

Comments

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I grew up on stove-popped popcorn, too, and I still always make it that way. I've never owned a popper. I like when the stove-popped corn rises until it lifts the lid of the pan. :-)