Recipe of the Month – Sweet and Savoury Popcorn

Those of you who come to 41 Portland Place for a site visit this month will be taking home one of our “thanks for popping by” treats.

For those of you unable to visit, I am sharing my recipe for the perfect sweet and savoury popcorn.

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
• 3 tbsp canola, peanut or grapeseed oil (high smoke point oil)
• 1/2 cup of high quality popcorn kernels
• Large saucepan with a lid
• 2 tbsp or more butter (to taste)
• Salt to taste

Sweet and spicy popcorn seasoning mix

Ingredients (all ingredients should be dry)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Method
1 Heat the oil in a saucepan on medium heat.

2 Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.

3 When the kernels pop, add the rest of the kernels in an even layer. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. (Count out loud; it’s fun to do with kids.) This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time.

4 Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping straight away, and all at once. Once the popping really gets going, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper). Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl. With this technique, nearly all of the kernels pop (I counted 4 unpopped kernels in my last batch), and nothing burns.

5 If you are adding butter, you can easily melt it by placing the butter in the now empty, but hot pan.

6 Mix all the spices together and add them to the popcorn

7 Salt to taste.

8 Enjoy!

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