DIY Popcorn Ideas

[givemushypeasachance]

I'm suddenly come into an unexpected vast quantity of popping corn (long story...) and I haven't made popcorn from scratch before. I've read instructions about making it in a saucepan with hot oil and the lid firmly on, shaking regularly, but is there any way to "jazz it up" a bit? I don't eat popcorn that regularly but when I do it's either plain salted or butterkist toffee deliciousness (a guilty pleasure). I've heard about having it savoury with things like garlic salt, or chocolate. How do you do it like that, and any other tasty suggestions?

I tend to cover mine in grated parmasan if I want something savoury.

For sweet popcorn we usually douse it in sugar and cinnamon. Similar to this recipe but with more cinnamon! You need to make sure the popcorn is still hot when you add the sugar so that it melts and coats the popcorn.

This sounds a bit weird but don't use oil use lard instead. The popcorn tastes so much better and the pan is a lot easier to clean, you don't need much lard either. We put some of the sugar in on the unpoped corn so it coats it then add extra afterwards. Sorry no ideas for jazzing it up though

Nigellas party popcorn is good - As I recall you melt 50g (?) of butter, mix in 2tsp each of sugar, salt, cinnamon, paprika and cumin and mix the popcorn in with it (you do the popcorn in wok oil if you've got it). Makes loads.

not quite as delicious as making it with oil / lard / butter, but if you want to feel slightly more virtuous, you can do it in the microwave without any fat.

I put a handful into one of those lidded glass Pampered Chef jugs and stick it on High for 2 or 3 minutes, then toss a pinch of seasalt and a pinch of smoked paprika through it, and then eat it on the sofa watching Mad Men .

Okay, so this isn't savoury, but it's damned delicious. Melt some butter in the pan after you've made the popcorn (and moved it to a bowl). The bigger knob, the better , then pour it all over your popcorn (swishing popcorn around so butter goes over all of it), then sprinkle generous helpings of icing sugar over it all too.
:)

I can vouch for the garlic salt! I put a tablespoon of light olive oil in a glass dish, add the garlic salt, add the corn (prob about 3 tbsp), cover loosely with one of those plastic microwave cover things, pop in the microwave for about 4-5 mins and voila! Perfect garlicky popcorn! If you're not too fussed about the salt sticking to the popcorn, you don't need to use any fat at all.

Forget all the faff of popping in a pan, stck a handful or two in a brown bag like you put vegetables in at the grocers, with half a knob of butter, twist the top of the bag tightly and microwave.