Curried Popcorn

Ever since we got our new 3D TV we've been watching lots of movies and TV shows on BluRay and in 3D. Recently we watched the Band of Brothers series twice (once with the commentary and once normally), The Pacific, and Generation Kill. And the best foodstuff to go with hour long TV shows and movies is of course popcorn!

I could have gone for the ready made/pop in a bag popcorn if I wanted. But 1) I don't own a microwave - there's no room for it in my tiny kitchen! And 2) Store bought popcorn only comes in one savoury flavour - salt. Then there's the fact that there's far too many added nasties in store bought popcorn but I won't go into those.

It's so easy to make popcorn at home and it's so bloody cheap too. I buy packets of popcorn maize from Waitrose which come in 200g packets, this is enough to make roughly 5 large bowlful's of popcorn. The best part is that I get to flavour my popcorn with whatever I fancy on the night. 

This time I went for Sri Lankan Curry flavoured popcorn. I get spice blends from Seasoned Pioneers which are really useful for a speedy curry and really authentic for spice blends like Ras El Hanout which can contain between 12 and 25 different spices.  The packaging is excellent at keeping the spices fresh and each package has a little note about the spices on the back with a recommendation to use them. The blends themselves make them excellent for popcorn. Just sprinkle a teaspoon of the spice mix on the popcorn kernels when you add the butter and they flavour the whole batch.

Pop.      Pop.     Pop.       Pop, pop, pop, pop....

I have also made Za'tar popcorn, Cinnamon popcorn and Extra Hot Chilli popcorn (using dried chilli flakes and 1/4 Scotch Bonnet). I have been thinking about doing bacon flavoured popcorn by using leftover bacon fat to cook the corn in. I will try this and let you know how it goes.



Ingredients
~40g Popcorn Kernels
1-2 tsp Spices
1 tbsp Butter
cooking Oil


Recipe
Heat a small amount of oil in a large saucepan with a lid. Put three kernels in the oil and wait for them to start popping.

Turn heat to medium. Add the remaining kernels, the butter, spices and put the lid on the pan. Shake the pan a bit to get the melted butter to spread the spices around the kernels.

Wait for the popping to start. As the popping starts to slow down, shake the pan some more to get the unpopped kernels to fall to the bottom of the pan.

If you're pan isn't big enough, the popcorn will start to push the lid up so carefully empty some of the popcorn out to continue with the remaining popping. Don't leave the pan alone as the bottom may start burning! Once done, empty in a bowl.  Eat.