Cocoa Puffs

Damn you, Bon Appetit magazine, for your spread on cocoa powder. All I could think about this afternoon was the Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts recipe on p. 91. I don't have time to make brownies! I have to make dinner!

That's the thing about chocolate cravings. Once you have one, it is like some kind of house gremlin: very hard to get rid of and sneaks up on you at the most inopportune times.

I was planning to make popcorn for a snack, and found this recipe for Cocoa Popcorn. Oh boy, is that ever good. I took it one step further and browned the butter, adding a really delicious nutty flavor. 5 minutes to prepare with very little cleanup (thanks to my trusty Whirley popcorn popper), I was in chocolate heaven in no time.

Brown Butter Cocoa Popcorn

• 5 C. unsalted popped popcorn
• 1 T. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 T. granulated sugar
• 1 t. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 t. popcorn salt

Mix together sugar and cocoa powder

Melt butter in a saucepan over med heat, keep cooking until it stops foaming and browned bits form at the bottom of the pan

Pour melted butter over popcorn

Pour cocoa powder mixture over popcorn

Mix with wooden spoon or hands

Add salt to taste (approx 1 t.)

Mix again until combined

Old Timey Popcorn

One day I was kind of obsessing over popcorn, and I ordered this popcorn popper on Amazon. It's called the Whirley-Pop Poporn Popper and it costs about $22.

When I first received it, I thought I had just paid a lot for nothing. It feels like it is made out of the cheapest tin that you can imagine, like a newborn baby could easily throw it across the room. I finally made popcorn with it the other night (in the middle of a Philip Seymour Hoffman double feaure), and I have to say, it was a dream to use. The popcorn popped quickly and evenly, with no cleanup. I used the pack of "Real Theater Popcorn" that came in the package, which contained oil (the consistency of butter, odd), popcorn kernals, and "seasoning" (MSG?). It was good, and really did look and taste like real theater popcorn. I even had the theater popcorn stomachache after eating an entire bowl of it.


I also purchased a popcorn recipe book, from which I may get my recipe of the week, depending on whether I am ready to eat popcorn again. It will be good to see how it does without the "special seasoning" and freakishly large kernels.

Whatever happens, I registered for the 25-year guarantee, so at least I know the thing is going to last for a lot of future movies and tv marathons. Although this part confuses me:

"25-year warranty on your Whirley-Pop Popper and 90-day warranty on pan and wood parts"

Huh?
Which part is the popper if it is not the pan and wood parts? The metal thing inside that you crank? 25 years for that, while the rest disintegrates after 3 months?

I may need to call the customer service hotline. This could keep me up at night.

Popcorn's New Wave

I've been sick lately (sinusitis & bacterial infection - you don't want to know, trust me) which has forced me to be home more than usual. On this Thursday night, a night usually reserved for going to our favorite French restaurant Garcon, I stayed home by myself and had movie night. I have been thinking of France a lot lately, and realizing that it was Francois Truffaut's birthday, I thought that a night of New Wave cinema would be the perfect night in.

Determined to make my living room as much like a movie theater as possible, I turned off the lights and fired up the DVD player, setting the TV screen to "Cinema". What was missing was popcorn. Now, I am not a huge fan of microwave popcorn - the kernels taste like styrofoam coated in plastic to me. But I really hadn't considered any other methods. I knew I had some corn kernels, and oil, and a pan...and soon realized that home-style popcorn was right in front of me. I read the directions on the package, got out a nonstick pan with a lid, and started the process.


It was remarkably easy. 2 Tablespoons of Canola oil to 1/3 cup popcorn. Heat oil and popcorn on medium, with a lid on top, tilted to let steam escape. Shake pan occasionally. Stop cooking when the popping stops.

It worked perfectly. Not one burnt kernel and not one left unpopped. It tasted great right out of the pan, but my husband reminded me that we had recently gotten some truffle oil to use on pizzas, and he knows that I love truffle oil popcorn, ever since having it at Supperclub a few years ago. I drizzled a small amount on the warm popcorn, added sea salt, and gave it a good shake. I loved the idea because of the similarity of the words "Truffaut" and "truffle" - accidental little details like that make me so happy sometimes! (yes, yes, I realize that all of this hermit time has made me a little bit insane...)


It was delicious! I happily munched away through "The Last Metro" and didn't have that awful sick feeling that I normally have after eating microwave popcorn. In fact, I felt so good that I watched "Jules and Jim" right afterwards - a double feature.

I was so pleased with the simplicity of the process - no fancy equipment, a minimum of ingredients, and hardly any cleanup. I can't wait to try different toppings, too. You can bet that this popcorn will be served at our next party - I even have the red & white cardboard boxes that I bought on whim awhile back.

(I would LOVE to hear any suggestions for popcorn toppings. Tell me all of your favorites!!)

When you consider the cost of a movie and popcorn in the theater, versus a night in, I think this is yet another way to combat this nasty recession. In fact, my friend Lisa recently told me that two industries that are doing well right now are movie rentals and alcohol. Right after I get off of these antibiotics, I will add adult beverages to movie night and the new Thursday night may be born.

Never the Twain...

East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet...or so I thought. When it comes to popcorn and candy at the movies, I thought it was like keeping a Kosher kitchen - the sweets bag shalt never mix with the savory bag.

Then Jude taught me that it's fun to put the candy in the popcorn, so that every now and then you get a little sweet bite among the salty bites, and it also slightly melts the chocolate, which makes it gooey-liscious. It works great with my favorite concession candy, Raisinettes.

It's kind of surprising that I like this combination, as I was the kid who couldn't stand to have her food touch on her plate - I would methodically eat around the gravy-soaked portion of the peas, leave bits of meat glued to mashed potatoes, etc. But for some reason, this works for me.

I looked around online and found nothing that spoke to the origins of this practice. I thought that it might be regional, like putting peanuts in Coke, or salting your beer. Nope, no evidence that anyone does this at all.

So, tell me, does anyone do this? Or are we the only ones with chocolate and salt covered fingers in the dark of the cinema?