Savannah’s Popcorn

It’s not often that I get called out on my own food values and principles. I believe that foods purchased in dried, flavor condensed packaging is a big mistake. More often than not, processed foods contain all sorts of scientific additives that rarely ever produce good health benefits. That’s why I always recommend preparing and making foods with components that you’re familiar with.

This past week I was chatting with Savannah, my favorite Patch editor by the way, discussing my exciting lifestyle and in particular, my extravagant plans for the evening. I was headed home to watch a rented movie and make popcorn, my favorite snack. (Exciting and extravagant, I know!)

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m an admitted popcorn junkie. I love adding a variety of seasonings to popcorn to give it my flare for all things exciting in the culinary world.

Typically, I’ll infuse butter with minced garlic and red pepper flakes and drench the microwavable popcorn in a mixing bowl. Delicious!

On occasion I’ve been known to drizzle the popcorn with truffle oil and add grated Parmesan cheese.

I’ve also used duck fat to coat my perfectly microwaved kernels as well. Outstanding by the way!

While in Des Moines for the holidays, I was at a restaurant that offered popcorn popped in bacon fat and coated with a dusting of pecorino cheese and chopped rosemary. It was as if they knew me!

Savannah asked me if I made my own popcorn. My quick response was that I use microwavable popcorn. Why mess with the troubles of popping my own?

This is when it got ugly.

“You’re kidding me right?” she asked.

“No, I use microwavable popcorn.” I responded, unaware of the firestorm that was headed in my direction.

“Don’t you know how bad that is for you? I pop my own popcorn at home and YOU don’t! Microwavable popcorn is loaded with all of the things that YOU despise. It’s everything YOU are against!” (I may be exaggerating a little here. She was actually much sweeter than this. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story right?)

Soullessly I responded, “I’ve never made my own popcorn from scratch before.”

Expecting to see Jamie Oliver jump out from a hidden location, she continued on.

“I make my own popcorn at home and YOU, Mr. Le Cordon Bleu don’t know how? It’s so easy!”

“Ok Ms. Rachel Ray Ziegelbauer, tell me. Tell me how you make popcorn!” 

After a rather short and direct sermon, I realized that I was a bit of a fool. It’s ok. I can admit it. Knowing when I’m wrong only makes me stronger.

“At least I don’t own a crock pot!” was my feeble comeback. It made no sense but I felt better by saying it.

When I got home to watch my movie, I determined that Savannah was right. I decided to shelve my plans for snacking on microwavable popcorn on pure principle alone. The thought of making my own popcorn dominated my thought process while watching the movie so I decided that the next day I’d “Woman Up” and make my own popcorn. Keeping good health and eating well in mind, I present to you, this week’s recipe.

Savannah’s Popcorn

Cajun popcorn with garlic finished with a touch of limejuice.

What you’ll need.

1.5 cups corn kernels

¼ cup vegetable oil

4 garlic cloves, minced very fine

Cajun seasoning containing no sodium

2 limes, quartered

1 sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil. This is necessary if you don’t have a lid for your saucepot. If you have a lid, use it! If you don’t have a lid or heavy-duty foil, take your regular foil and fold it over. The sheet of foil should be big enough to cover the top of your saucepot. It doesn’t have to be exact. The idea here is to easily drape the saucepot with the foil to make sure you can encase the moisture caused by the popping corn.

In a medium sized saucepot, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. When the oil begins to ripple, add in the corn kernels.

Next, cover the saucepot with the lid or foil.

Here’s a quick tip for using foil. Cover the pot with the foil, drape a dry side towel over the foil and begin to press the foil around the edges of the saucepot. The dry side towel will prevent you from burning your fingers when casing the saucepot. Make sure that you do this quickly to make sure moisture doesn’t escape the saucepot and also make sure that the dry side towel doesn’t come in contact with the flame or heating surface. The last thing you want to do is start a fire in your kitchen by igniting your side towel!

Ok, now that you’ve covered your saucepot of roasting kernels on medium heat, sit back for a few seconds and relax. When you start hearing kernels pop, give the saucepot a few shakes. The kernels will continue to pop which is what you want. After about 30 seconds, give the saucepot a few more shakes. At this point, it’s really tempting to uncover the saucepot but trust me, be patient. Let the kernels continue to pop and give the saucepot a few more shakes. Reduce the heat to medium low to prevent burning the popcorn. Give the saucepot a few more shakes and after about 4 minutes of shaking and popping, remove the lid or foil, add the minced garlic and transfer the kernels to a large mixing bowl.

At this point it is essential to season the popcorn. Are you listening to me??? Season right away! (It’s totally fine to be liberal with the seasoning and I don’t mean politically. I don’t want to offend any of my right-winged readers!) The moisture of the popcorn will soak up the glory of your Cajun seasoning. If you season too late, the seasoning will fall helplessly to the bottom of the mixing bowl and go unnoticed. When you’ve added the seasoning, give the popcorn a few tosses to ensure that you’ve evenly distributed the seasoning over the entire bowl of popcorn.

To plate. Transfer the garlic and Cajun seasoned popped kernels to your favorite serving bowl of choice. This is probably the only time I’ll recommend using a brightly decorated bowl. Go ahead. Use it. It’s fine in this instance. Garnish the bowl with a few lime wedges.

One last note. I would have never expected the lime wedges to be such a great instrument of flavor in this case. My prep guy in the restaurant had a few extra lime wedges left over from making pico de gallo. When he tried the popcorn, he added the juice from a few lime wedges and the flavors exploded! It was truly tremendous. The acid from the limes opens the taste buds on the tongue allowing the garlic and Cajun seasonings to go to work! Try it and you’ll be a believer.

Also, the best part of this recipe is that the added seasoning and limejuice does not add calories to the popcorn giving you a ton of flavor without the guilt.

A tasty snack without the added fat and calories you say???

I say yes!

Buen Provecho