Skybird
09-29-19, 11:45 AM
Everybody likes it, so why do we have no popcorn thread? We have not had a ktichen thread since some weeks now, so I open a new one, popcorn this time. Share your secret melanges, your delicious recipes, trade ideas to bring others to your taste!
I used a pot and a stirring device long time ago, but the cleaning always was a mess when using sugar, since it was stainless steel. I now use a machine since some months, which is good for me sicne I make a lot of popcorn. Its a pan-design and by prncipole the same lie this one, and I can only recommend it, the thing works like a charm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMq9CGy0ELg
Per 100gr of corn, for sweet popcorn I would need 3 big tablespoons of sugar, 75-80gr, which of course is madness. Some sugar is needed for caramellisation, but I replace two third of the sugar with Cyclamat and Saccarid, sweetners that are heat-resistent. I tend to stirr corn, a little amount of oil and the seeter separately before giving it into the pan. The result is what you expct of this base reciupe, and it works very well.
The art lies in non-sweet popcorn, and how to make it without adding loads and loads of additional working steps and heating up the oven and investing one or two hours of working time for what essentially should be done within ten minutes at max. I tried adding spices and melanges and oil right to the corn in the pan, only to find it was always turning black and the spices and herbs getrting blask and turning to ashes. No good results. However, popping the corn all alone and then adding the spice afterwards was not satisfying as well. If adding dry spice and salt, the stuff did not stick to the popped corn. When stirring the melanmge of herbs and salt into oil and then trying to bring this and the popped corn together, I needed an iusane amount of oil, and the whole reuslt was some corn being overpsiced and some not getting any herbs at all and the whole cup of corn being messy and oily, not crispy.
I now use mills/grinders at the finest setting possible, for salt, for pepper, for all green herbs and even for Sharwood curry pwoder, to make it even finer, like powder sugar or flour. I do not open the venting lsit sin the pan's lid/bowl where the steam could escape, I keep it inside the pan. This keeps the popped corn slightly more moist than without this method. When the corn is done and tkaen off the heater, it all moust be ver yfast work, to use the present moisture as a "glue" to have thwe powders prepared sticking to them much better. Even herbs like Thyme and Rosmary I grind in a mill, salt anyway. the result is such that this kind of non-sweet popcorn became enjoyable to me.
My favourites?
- Vegeta, Schabziger Klee, and Chili powder. Vegeta, so says Wikipedia, is a Croatian product and some specific details can be taken here: LINK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podravka#Brands). It is very versatile and is used for many kinds of dishes. Schabziger Klee I mentioned before some time ago, think in the pancake thread. Its a fantastic herb grinded into a light green powder. Another of the secret agents in my kitchen that I could not live without. LINK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonella_caerulea)
- Salt, and Shardwood mild curry powder, sometimes I spill some roasted sesam oil or roasted walnut oil above the dressed popcorn.
- Very small-cut grilled bacon, especially the released oil from it, plus salt and black pepper. Done.
- olive oil, salt, Basil, Parmesan cheese, Oregano maybe. All in powder format (=as fine as possible). tastes well, but needs a lot of oil to have enough herbs and cheese sticking to the corn, so that eating it is a messy, oily, greasy affair that puts a wide grin on your face like you last time had at your birthday party when you were five or six years.
For sweet popcorn, I just use any oil, and sugar and sweetner as described above. Sometimes I am in the mood for adding cinnamon, I started experiments with Anise, Fennel , white pepper, while it is not bad, it is not yet what I expect it to be once I got a good melange. The lots of sugar needed to get there, is a problem - I love and eat a lot of popcorn, so I cannot always do what I want to do if I do not want to turn into a diabetic.
My biggest dissapointment so far? Roasted sesam oil and indonesian soy sauce and chili. The sauce in the pan really messed up badly. Kitchen smelled for the next 24 hours, and did not taste well. Although normally i LOVE Ketjap Manis, here it was a real mess. A first. I never ha dsuch a messy result when using it in the Wok, at much higher temperatures.
Be careful when being in Germany when mentioning you want to pop corn ("lasst uns Poppen"...). "Poppen" in German language is slang for a biological and very natural activity that usually includes two consenting adults and from here on you can imagine the rest. :D
I used a pot and a stirring device long time ago, but the cleaning always was a mess when using sugar, since it was stainless steel. I now use a machine since some months, which is good for me sicne I make a lot of popcorn. Its a pan-design and by prncipole the same lie this one, and I can only recommend it, the thing works like a charm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMq9CGy0ELg
Per 100gr of corn, for sweet popcorn I would need 3 big tablespoons of sugar, 75-80gr, which of course is madness. Some sugar is needed for caramellisation, but I replace two third of the sugar with Cyclamat and Saccarid, sweetners that are heat-resistent. I tend to stirr corn, a little amount of oil and the seeter separately before giving it into the pan. The result is what you expct of this base reciupe, and it works very well.
The art lies in non-sweet popcorn, and how to make it without adding loads and loads of additional working steps and heating up the oven and investing one or two hours of working time for what essentially should be done within ten minutes at max. I tried adding spices and melanges and oil right to the corn in the pan, only to find it was always turning black and the spices and herbs getrting blask and turning to ashes. No good results. However, popping the corn all alone and then adding the spice afterwards was not satisfying as well. If adding dry spice and salt, the stuff did not stick to the popped corn. When stirring the melanmge of herbs and salt into oil and then trying to bring this and the popped corn together, I needed an iusane amount of oil, and the whole reuslt was some corn being overpsiced and some not getting any herbs at all and the whole cup of corn being messy and oily, not crispy.
I now use mills/grinders at the finest setting possible, for salt, for pepper, for all green herbs and even for Sharwood curry pwoder, to make it even finer, like powder sugar or flour. I do not open the venting lsit sin the pan's lid/bowl where the steam could escape, I keep it inside the pan. This keeps the popped corn slightly more moist than without this method. When the corn is done and tkaen off the heater, it all moust be ver yfast work, to use the present moisture as a "glue" to have thwe powders prepared sticking to them much better. Even herbs like Thyme and Rosmary I grind in a mill, salt anyway. the result is such that this kind of non-sweet popcorn became enjoyable to me.
My favourites?
- Vegeta, Schabziger Klee, and Chili powder. Vegeta, so says Wikipedia, is a Croatian product and some specific details can be taken here: LINK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podravka#Brands). It is very versatile and is used for many kinds of dishes. Schabziger Klee I mentioned before some time ago, think in the pancake thread. Its a fantastic herb grinded into a light green powder. Another of the secret agents in my kitchen that I could not live without. LINK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonella_caerulea)
- Salt, and Shardwood mild curry powder, sometimes I spill some roasted sesam oil or roasted walnut oil above the dressed popcorn.
- Very small-cut grilled bacon, especially the released oil from it, plus salt and black pepper. Done.
- olive oil, salt, Basil, Parmesan cheese, Oregano maybe. All in powder format (=as fine as possible). tastes well, but needs a lot of oil to have enough herbs and cheese sticking to the corn, so that eating it is a messy, oily, greasy affair that puts a wide grin on your face like you last time had at your birthday party when you were five or six years.
For sweet popcorn, I just use any oil, and sugar and sweetner as described above. Sometimes I am in the mood for adding cinnamon, I started experiments with Anise, Fennel , white pepper, while it is not bad, it is not yet what I expect it to be once I got a good melange. The lots of sugar needed to get there, is a problem - I love and eat a lot of popcorn, so I cannot always do what I want to do if I do not want to turn into a diabetic.
My biggest dissapointment so far? Roasted sesam oil and indonesian soy sauce and chili. The sauce in the pan really messed up badly. Kitchen smelled for the next 24 hours, and did not taste well. Although normally i LOVE Ketjap Manis, here it was a real mess. A first. I never ha dsuch a messy result when using it in the Wok, at much higher temperatures.
Be careful when being in Germany when mentioning you want to pop corn ("lasst uns Poppen"...). "Poppen" in German language is slang for a biological and very natural activity that usually includes two consenting adults and from here on you can imagine the rest. :D