Pop Chef

The apartment Kyle and I are sharing here in Toulon does not have a microwave or even an oven. Though it’s been a bit of a challenge getting by on two burners, it’s also forced us to be creative with our cooking. Part of the fun has been learning to adapt old favorites. Lately, the subject of our experimentation has been the humble popcorn.

A true child of the ’80’s, popcorn and microwave have always been synonymous in my mind. But popcorn made on the stove is incredibly easy. It’s also way cheaper than the microwave stuff, and, without the fake butter syrup, healthier to boot.

Instead of smoothering our snack with butter, we’ve been making up our own fun topping combinations. So far we’ve gone spicy with soy sauce and chili powder, sweet with sugar and salt, and local with a healthy sprinkling of herbes de provence. We tried vinegar with a little less success–the flavor was overpowering. Next up is lime juice and cilantro. We’ve also thought about making use of some of the spices we’ve brought back from our travels–what better way to remember Budapest than Hungarian paprika popcorn? Of course you could always go a little more traditional with caramel or cheddar cheese. But take a chance, it turns out almost everything is good on popcorn!

A quick stove top popcorn recipe:

Coat the bottom of a pot with vegetable oil

Put the pot over medium high heat and add 3 kernels of popcorn

Cover the pot and wait for the 3 kernels to pop–when they do, you know the oil is hot enough for popping

Pour in a quarter cup of corn kernels (this is about the amount of popcorn you find in a normal sized microwave popcorn bag, so adjust accordingly) and put the lid back on

The popping should start pretty quickly

Give the pot a shake every now and then to make sure all of the kernels make it to the bottom of the pot

The popcorn’s done when you’re waiting several seconds between pops

Important: When it’s done, remove the pot from heat and keep the lid on for around 20 seconds. The corn will keep popping.

Then remove the lid, toss with seasoning, and enjoy

Please comment if you come up with any other good popcorn topping suggestions–we’d love to hear them!