I love love love popcorn (shut it, haters), and I feel like it’s having a major moment recently. I’ve been seeing it at fancy restaurants, so I hacked their versions to bring you these:
From left to right: tea kettle corn, parmesan rosemary truffle popcorn, preparedness popcorn, and duck fat popcorn.
All these recipes assume you know how to make popcorn already. Let me remind you in case you forgot. Get a big stock pot out, and pour just enough of a neutral oil (I like canola) to cover the bottom of the pan. Put three kernels in the oil and place all that over a burner on medium heat. When the first kernel pops, pull this off the burner and pour just enough popcorn into the bottom to exactly cover the base of the pan. Put a tight-fitting lid on top, and keep it off the burner for 30 seconds. Put it back on the burner, and stay close by. It’ll pop pretty quickly. When you have more than 3 seconds between pops, take it off the burner, remove the lid, and do what you see fit. Use what you reap in these recipes.
This is a fail-safe popcorn-makin’ scheme, so rest easy.
Recipes after the jump!
Tea Kettle Corn
6 cups popcorn
1/8 cup matcha tea (you can get this at Whole Foods, and sometimes Kroger)
1/8 cup turbinado sugar (sub white sugar if that doesn’t freak you out)
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil (optional, richer flavor)
Blend together your tea and sugar. Pour melted oil over popcorn, then mix in the tea mix. It’s going to be really, really green, so fair warning.
Parmesan Rosemary Truffle Popcorn
6 cups popcorn
1 tablespoon truffle oil (black or white, it’s not really important)
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
2-3 teaspoons of rosemary
butter, sea salt, and pepper to taste
Pour in truffle oil and butter. Add everything else and mix up. Omnom.
Preparedness Popcorn
6 cups popcorn
1/4 brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter
1 sleeve of thin mints (oh hell, yeah, I’m totally going there)
12 ounces melted chocolate
butter, to taste
Melt together your butter, nut butter,and sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Crush up the cookies (don’t worry, it’s worth it), then mix all these things together with the popcorn. Spread that out over a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Melt chocolate over medium-low heat, then pour over the popcorn mix. Let that solidify for a minute or 20.
Duck Fat Popcorn
Instead of using a neutral oil, like I suggested above, use duck fat instead to make your popcorn.
6 cups popcorn
2 tablespoons melted duck fat
2 green onions, sliced small
salt to taste
Pour your duck fat over the popcorn and mix. Add on green onions, then salt to taste.
