In particular, I bought it because D. was with me, and one of his favorite topics, is noting how Americans display the flag on everything. When we're in the US he must point it out at each instance--in front of the bank, the post office, the school, on a car's bumper sticker, on a kid's t-shirt, etc. (OK, maybe we do display the flag a lot.)
But this is different, because it's the Dutch displaying it.
Also I bought it because here ready to eat popcorn is just different. First, I find the majority of the popcorn sold in the supermarket to be 'sweet' instead of 'salty' (so microwaveable popcorn bags like in the US but with sugar instead of salt inside--um, no), or at the movie theaters I frequent it tends to be stale, dry and like cardboard, like it was made five hours ago with sub-standard corn. Orville Redenbacher would die a second death if he were to step into a certain theater frequented by English speakers in Koeln and try their popcorn.
After you've bought your popcorn, you need to have a place to pop it, something with a lid. Here is my wok from Aldi Sued, but you can also use a deep pot with a lid. The wok is better because then you can watch it popping and better monitor progress. Also, because the popped kernals fly up and then deflect off the top onto the sloped side rather than the bottom, they are out of the hottest heat and oil, leaving the unpopped kernals at the bottom to get their turn, thus minimizing burning.
Here it is completed. Well done Aldi Sued wok!
Next step, scoop it into a bowl and add whatever you want on top. It's a little difficult to scoop out of the wok without dropping a few pieces, so that's why you don't want to add your melted butter or whatever before scooping.
While you could add butter or salt, I prefer to sprinkle on some nutritional yeast, a vegetarian staple. I discovered nutrional yeast a few years ago when I was a vegan. It's an interesting item for cooking, because it is a powerful source of Vitamin B12, as well as adding a bit of a nutty flavor to any recipe.
Enjoy!
7 comments:
I absolutely love popcorn and completely agree with you about sugar on it being very wrong. Same with my cinema experience. I never thought to cook it in a wok, though.
J-The wok was actually an experiment out of necessity, I don't have any large pots with a lid here. ;-)
However, it turned out to be the best popcorn I've done in a long time(oh so light and fluffy), so I think it will be my preferred method going forward.
We found really GOOD American micro popcorn at Galleria Kaufhof in the World Foods section. Orville's actually. Or my MIL mails it to us, takes six weeks to get but so worth it!
We did the movie popcorn once, we had no idea it was going to have sugar on it. Ick.
Yeah, the sweet popcorn can be a shock to your system if you're expecting the salty kind.
We occasionally buy salty microwave popcorn from either Lidl or Penny (can't remember) but it's not very good and we prefer to make our own in the hot air popper we bought years ago.
Oh yeah, and the American flag thing - I love how the Germans will also slap the flag on just about anything and call it "American Style".
andrea-popcorn by post! oh the lengths we expats go to, and how very nice of your MIL. that must look great on the customs form, 'popcorn'.
christina-i'd love to know if you ever see the germans put a canadian flag on anything and call it 'canadian style'. :-) the 'american style' things often seem goofy at best.
LOL about the flag thing. Seems that here (including NL) they really use that despised American flag to sell everything. I have rice, peanut butter, popcorn, marshmallows... on and on with US flags on the package. It's hilarious. And, my German husband thought that "American popcorn" was that icky sweet junk they sell here. No wonder he never liked "popcorn"!
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