Snap. Crackle. Popcorn on a Stove!
Leena’s Childhood Home — Late Afternoon
Pop, pop, pop!
That’s the sound I would often hear from the kitchen on any given weekday finishing up my homework and watching the newest episode of Pokemon on Kids WB. Throwback, anyone? Skip to the recipe.
We had a cool popcorn maker (similar to this one) that had a little tray on top for butter. The steam from the popping popcorn would melt the butter which you’d then pour onto the fresh, hot popcorn. SO. GOOD. My parents loved having popcorn as a late afternoon snack, so when my dad would get home from work, my mom would pour some kernels into the machine and let ‘em pop! It was really fun watching the popped corn rise and fill up the spouted head and then pour out and onto the floor.
Just kidding. I wanted to see if you were still paying attention.
Anyway, that machine either broke (after, like, 20 years of use) or my mom donated it. Our popcorn consumption went down because of my dad’s carb-consciousness, and we would just buy microwave popcorn when we wanted it.
With Avengers: Endgame coming out tonight, I’ve been marathons of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So I got the urge to make fresh popcorn and decided to learn how to make stove-top popcorn. It’s much easier than you might think and, like all popcorn (all food, really), the only warning is don’t burn it. I’ve paraphrased Bon Appetit’s recipe below because their recipe is melded into a story/text which I know many of you hate:
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil or butter
1/4 cup popcorn kernels
sea salt, for seasoning
a saucepan (like 2 quart?) with a lid
Directions
Put half of the oil/butter in the pan and turn on the stove to medium heat.
Add the kernels and stir to ensure they’re thoroughly coated with the oil/butter.
Once you hear the kernels sizzling, put the lid on the saucepan.
Pretty quickly, you’ll hear the popping (and get excited)! Wait until the popping slows down a bit and grab your oven mitts. While holding the lid down/closed, carefully shake the saucepan around and listen for unpopped kernels. If you hear them, place the pan back on the stove for a few more seconds.
When you don’t hear any unpopped kernels, you’re in the endgame. Open up the lid and quickly pour the remaining oil/butter onto the freshly popped popcorn and then close the lid and shake it all around. Then open it up again and sprinkle with sea salt or any seasoning you want and then shake, shake, shake!
Serve!!