What is the best way to pop popcorn on the stove?

Question

I have a kettle-corn popcorn recipe that I have to pop on the stove as I don't have a popcorn maker and I wouldn't want to add the sugar to the popcorn maker. This makes me wonder what the best way to pop popcorn, in a pot with a lid, over the stove is?

Answer

Use a carbon-steel wok! The shape works very well to keep the unpopped kernels in the hot oil, while the popped kernels end up on the cooler sides. I usually use about 2 T of oil and 1/3 c of popcorn to make enough for two people.

If you want to keep with the Chinese theme, Szechuan peppercorn-salt goes extremely well on popcorn! To make it, grind Szechuan peppercorns and kosher salt in a spice grinder.

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How do I butter popcorn without making it soggy?

Question

I've tried buttering my popcorn in the past, and it always turns out inconsistent. A few pieces will be soaked with butter, and others have no butter on them at all.

Perhaps there is a way to get the butter flavoring without drizzling butter on after popping the kernels?

Answer

Another option is to make your popcorn in a pot using butter as the oil for the bottom. I find that if you toast the unpopped popcorn kernels in the butter, it gives a bit of a butter flavor to the entire pot -- less than if you were to put butter on the top, but plenty for me.

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How to make puffed/popped rice?

Question

Is it possible to make puffed rice at home like the rice used in breakfast cereals? I have a hot air popcorn maker and have experimented with that with little success.

I imagine the problem is to do with the moisture content of the rice, so far I've only tried with dried Basmati. Does it need moisture to expand to create the puffed effect? If so does par boiling the rice work? If so how long would I need to do it to get the ideal moisture content.

Answer

Interesting question. Did search 'how do I make puffed rice'. Came up with some interesting information.

There are some writings that suggest that puffed rice can be made like popcorn; get the moisture in the grains of rice to the correct level (no idea what the level should be, experimentation should guide you I suppose) and then (depending on what source you read) put in a popcorn popper, put it on sheets in the oven or fry it in oil.

The history indicates that the first puffed rice made in the U.S. was actually shot from a cannon, after, I presume, being thoroughly soaked to some level of softness; there was a cereal advert in the '60s that bragged "this is the cereal that's shot from guns". Am thinking that the softening of the rice, probably by cooking, and then putting it into a pressure vessel in which the pressure is allowed to rise to a certain PSI (pounds per square inch) and explosively releasing the pressure, causes the grains to boil or fizz or effervesce, gives them the light puffiness we see at the market.

If I'm reading the information correctly, the devices to make puffed rice are available

Here is a link to a video showing the explosive creation of puffed rice by a traveling puffed rice manufactury on a bicycle in Taiwan;

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3915559836111131480#docid=-4928826327589404249

Here are some other links, kind of vague, regarding non explosive puffed rice:

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question393.htm

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/20752/how-to-make-puffed-rice

http://www.indiamike.com/india/indian-recipes-f108/how-to-make-puffed-rice-at-home-t94003/

This last link has some history & speculation of how puffed rice has been made non explosively using hot salt, or sand...didn't read all of the ideas.

Have fun, and be safe.

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Flavoring popcorn without using fat

Question

I have a popcorn machine that produces popcorn without using fat. It basically blows hot air over corn cores, and after 2 minutes they start popping. You're not supposed to add any flavoring agent (salt, sugar, ...) in the machines as it's not made for that. So when I want to add flavor, I spray water onto the popcorn right after it has popped, and then scatter the flavoring agent. This works relatively well

The downside:

• the corns can become damp (I solve this by leaving the machine on, which blows hot air over the popcorn)
• you can waste some flavoring agent (not all of it sticks to the popcorn, some of it falls on the bottom of the bowl

The upside:

• no fat used, healthier and your fingers will be less "greasy"

Any other ideas how to flavor your popcorn using no or a minimal amount of fat?

Answer

Don't spray with water with a standard squirt bottle. Get an olive oil spritzer. It's pressurized, so you get an almost aerosol-fine mist, which prevents the kernels from getting soggy. It also adds flavor, in addition to the powdered seasonings you add with it. Or you could use an infused oil and skip the powdered seasoning altogether.

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Would ground “popcorn meal” differ from regular corn meal?

Question

Purely a theoretical question I'm afraid - I haven't experimented (yet). If you take popped popcorn and grind it to a flour, would the result be similar to cornmeal? One difference, I imagine, is that it is in principle ready to eat, as opposed to regular cornmeal which still needs to be cooked to denature the proteins.

Are there things you could achieve with this "popcorn meal" that don't work with regular cornmeal? For example, what would you get if you used this for making polenta? Could you make a "raw polenta" that doesn't require much cooking?

Answer

Interesting question. so I pulled out a hot air popper (you wouldn't want to use a oil popper to try this.) and put some popped dry corn into a food process and let-her-rip. I wouldn't call the results "masa" but it might be usable for an ingredient in a breading.

I call your attention to the book "POPCORN". It has a nice collection of recipes which include popcorn, and in no case does the author suggest reducing popcorn to corn meal, so I suspect the answer is, "Yes, ground popcorn meal would differ from ground corn."

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