Monday, February 21, 2011

How to pop your corn.

Hello. If you've experienced problems popping corn, you've come to the right place.

I don't mean this kind of popcorn:


I mean this kind of popcorn:


You know, the kind you can get in the bulk bins. There are two benefits of do-it-yourself popcorn. First, it's healthier. Secondly, you can flavor it however you want. I'd call that a win-win situation.

I've been battling with popcorn for awhile. (Like seriously battling. At least four times I ended up with burnt kernels and NO popped ones. I was sad). I finally got the hang of it last week. Perfect timing, since this week is snack week!!!

Here is the step-by-step tutorial.

Find a pot (deep is better than shallow) and add one teaspoon of a high-heat oil. I recommend coconut oil. Do not use olive oil because it is not a high-heat oil!!! Turn the stove on to medium-high heat.


Wait for the coconut oil to completely melt, then add three kernels of corn.


To prevent the kernels from burning, keep them moving by shaking/stirring the pot around. When the kernels begin to pop, the oil is hot enough. Be careful; these kernels tend to jump pretty high when they pop!

Add the rest of the kernels to the pot. (This may seem like a small amount, but the entire pot fills up after popping).


Keep stirring the pot around, and put a lid on the pot. At this point, the popcorn will go crazy, but just be patient and keep stirring the pot around. When the popping starts to slow, take the pot off the heat, wait for a minute, and then take the lid off.


Season, and then your huge pot of popcorn is ready! You can season it with anything--I used salt and pepper for this batch, but you can even make it sweet by adding cinnamon or cocoa powder. Or if you happen to have it, nutritional yeast is a good addition as well.

I perfectly portioned this out to have a snack for tomorrow, and then ended up eating today's batch and tomorrow's batch. I definitely needed this after teaching TurboKick today. Note to self: consume more calories before teaching. Somehow in the middle of class, I wasn't able to coordinate my movements and cues properly. It was awkward. (What saved me afterwards was coconut water. It is seriously magical).

If you have any recommendations for snacks or perhaps another how-to you'd like to see, do let me know. :)

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