Picturing Popcorn

No Saturday night in with an old movie on TMC--The Bad and the Beautiful is tonight's "essential"--would be complete without popcorn. But after spending all day in the heat and sun (we walked up to the Central Park reservoir and back), the last thing either Jon or I wanted was something salty. So what's the solution? Make our own salt-free microwaveable popcorn from scratch, of course.

I remembered reading this post on homemade microwave popcorn on Mark Bittman's New York Times food blog and got to work. I opted for a bowl instead of the brown paper bag, and I also opted for olive oil over peanut oil. 

I used 1/4 cup popcorn, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and about a dozen grinds of freshly cracked black pepper. We also made a variation with cayenne pepper, but you could try adding any spice you want: chipotle, cinnamon, or even curry powder. Make sure you use a glass--preferably Pyrex--bowl with a lid, not a plastic bowl and Saran Wrap. (Trust me on this! It wasn't until my third attempt that I switched to a Pyrex covered casserole dish.)

Stir the popcorn, oil, and pepper well to make sure each kernel is coated. Cover the bowl and microwave on high. One thing, though: Bittman claims that you should microwave the popcorn "until the kernels stop [popping], which is high heat for two minutes in many cases," but this is laughably inaccurate. Maybe it was the kind of popcorn I bought (well, more accurately, I sent Jon downstairs to the store), and maybe it was my microwave, but it took a whopping 4:30 for my popcorn to reach that magic place where the majority of the kernels have popped without burning and stinking you out of your house.

However, you might want to park yourself close to your microwave to keep both an ear and a nose out to catch the popcorn as the popping slows down and before it starts to burn.

Comments

[Lorraine]

Sounds like a successful experiment in improving on microwave popcorn! You might try some of the gourmet popcorns: Orville Redenbacher or Amish Country gourmet white popcorn. I did read that peanut oil has a high smoke point that makes it most suitable for the intense heat required to pop popcorn without scorching. This is what I use in my electric popcorn maker by Cuisinart and it comes out great. I'll have to experiment with different oils. Is there a cookie in this somewhere?

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Lorraine. It was successful...on the third try. (There's an "Oops!" post coming soon.) You're right about the oil. Bittman recommends peanut oil. We used olive oil because we liked the flavor of a microwave brand (Orville Redenbacher?) that had olive oil, cracked pepper, and sea salt. Our version was really close, except for the salt, which we left out. I'm not sure if there's a cookie recipe in here anywhere...just snack food for snack food's sake!

[Lorraine]

I'm on board with that sentiment!