Popcorn

Those bags of microwave popcorn that are available all over the place sure are convenient, but one time I opened a bag to see what was inside and smelled the contents. The oil smelled rancid and decidedly non-buttery and awful with chemicals. Put me off microwave popcorn permanently and I don't care how great it smells when it's cooked. It must be some kind of dark chemistry magic. 

This corn comes from the bulk bins at whole foods and kept in a jar in the pantry. I can mill the popcorn to powder and make homemade polenta. I can use the milled corn for addition to bread, cornbread, biscuits, to mix with steamed rice, as a corn-flavored thickener, to supplement masa for tortillas, coat fried chicken and fish along with wheat flour, crackers, all kinds of odd and adventurous things. Try doing any of that with microwave popcorn -- truly a one trick pony

Kosher salt or sea salt is crushed to fine powder. It can also be processed in a coffee mill. The idea is to have the smallest possible crystals.  

Parmigiano Reggiano, undisputed king of all cheeses, celery salt on impulse, garlic powder, a very fine powder also from the bulk bins at Whole Foods and unlike the granular form available in tiny jars in the grocery store spice section. Some kind of curry probably Masala, it seems to have a good deal of turmeric in it, cayenne sold in tins. 

Ordinarily I would treat the spices and the cheese separately. Unsalted butter melted in the same pot that popped the corn off the heat but while it is still hot. This way the seasoning can cook briefly in the hot melted butter before being drizzled over the popcorn without melting the cheese. But this time I mixed it all together and sprinkled it over the finished popcorn that was drizzled with butter. The wet butter gives the finely grated cheese and the powdered spices a way to stick to the popcorn. The cohesion can be assisted with a few seconds in the microwave which will then melt the cheese to the surface of the popcorn so it doesn't all end up at the bottom of the bowl, although that can be sort of fun too. 

Exactly 1/2 cup popcorn seeds works perfectly with this 3-quart pot. I think it's 3-quart, I didn't check. 

The butter is cut and ready to go, like the grated cheese and the salt and other spices, mise en place, if you like. The popcorn cooks very quickly and there will be no time to root around for various additions. 

Vegetable oil, one tablespoon approximately, just enough to coat the kernels, So two types of fat; vegetable for higher cooking heat, butter to finish, to flavor the corn, and to provide a damp surface for grated cheese, salt, and spices to adhere.

This pot has a lid but it fits too tightly. The lid must vent steam or else the popcorn will not be crunchy. Therefore, this splatter guard screen is substituted for the lid. 

The popcorn is dumped into a waiting bowl as soon as it rises to the top of the pot. The heat is cut off. Butter (and usually spices) are added to the hot pot. The spices cook and the butter is drizzled over the popcorn. Cheese is drizzled over the top of the popcorn while gently tossing. 

Cheese and spices. Salt and pepper. Vegetable oil to cook and butter to flavor. This popcorn is unlike anything you've ever tried. It is available nowhere but your own kitchen. Because the spices and their amounts are all impulse, it is never precisely the same any two times, so the variations are infinite.