Hurricane Popcorn Marshmallow Treats

Sometimes an idea pops in my head and it sounds so good that I'm sure someone else must have thought of it already, but then a quick search of the internets results in nothing!  I was inspired to make these because the kind folks at Sanzo had sent me some microwave popcorn and furikake in their limited edition Turning Red lychee sparkling water treat box.  My first thought was to make some hurricane popcorn with it, but I was already thinking of making some Rice Krispies treats, and then I just thought, why not combine them?

If you're not familiar with hurricane popcorn, it's a Hawaiian snack that combines kettle corn, furikake, and mochi crunch (aka Japanese rice crackers or arare).  It's one of those sweet and salty snacks that quickly becomes addictive because you just need that next bite to balance out the sweetness or saltiness from the last bite (kind of like Chicago mix popcorn).

These treats amp up the sweetness and crunch factor by adding marshmallows and Rice Krispies but still remain irresistible.  I add a little soy sauce (another common ingredient in hurricane popcorn) for saltiness but if that is a little too weird for you, you can just substitute with salt to taste.  Also, I only used 3 tablespoons of furikake so it's not too overpowering, but you can add more if really like that flavor.

Hurricane Popcorn Marshmallow Treats
makes 24 pieces

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon soy sauce (or substitute with salt, to taste)
3 tablespoons furikake, divided
10 oz. mini marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
2 cups popped popcorn (optional)*
1 cup Japanese rice crackers

Line a 9"x13" baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.  Once fully melted, turn the heat to low and add the soy sauce (or salt) and 2 tablespoons of the furikake and stir until combined.  Add the marshmallows and stir occasionally until fully melted.

Add the cereal, popcorn, and rice crackers and mix until combined.  Pour the mixture into the lined baking pan and press down with oiled hands (I like to save the butter wrapper to do this with) into an even layer.  Top with the remaining tablespoon of furikake.

Let cool, then remove from the pan using the parchment paper and slice into 24 pieces.  Enjoy!

*I made this again without popcorn and liked the texture even more!

Previously:  Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Updated)
Next:  Sourdough Discard Okonomiyaki Waffles

Sriracha Popcorn

I was first introduced to Pop! Sriracha Popcorn when I was in the midst of a cold and could barely taste a thing.  The intense taste of sriracha cut through everything though, and the crunchiness of the popcorn only added to it being the best thing I had eaten since I started getting sick.

Even after I had regained all my taste buds and sense of smell, I couldn't stop eating the snack even though I'm usually not a big fan of spicy stuff.  I checked the list of ingredients and noticed that sugar was included.  Of course!  I don't know how it works, but I know you can add sugar to a dish if it's too spicy to make it more palatable.  I bet the sugar was doing the same thing here while also making it super addictive, like a buttery, spicy, garlicky kettle corn.

Since I'm kind of a wimp in terms of spiciness, I only used 2 teaspoons of sriracha in this recipe, but if really like things spicy, I imagine that doubling that amount or more might work better for you.  At a certain point, though, you might have too much liquid, which would make the popcorn soggy, so you'd be better off making some sriracha salt and sprinkling that on.

Sriracha Popcorn
makes 6 cups

6 cups freshly popped popcorn
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (plus more, to taste)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2-4 teaspoons sriracha

Place the butter, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and sugar in a microwaveable measuring cup with a spout and microwave for 45-60 seconds, until the butter is melted.  Add the sriracha and stir.

Drizzle half of the sauce over the popcorn in a large bowl.  Shake to distribute and then drizzle the other half.  Shake again to combine.  Add more salt, to taste, if desired.

Next:  Cranberry-Port Gelée 
Previously:  Spatchcock Chicken and Roasted Root Vegetables
Last Year:  My Mom's Taiwanese Sticky Rice
Two Years Ago:  Grapefruit Pie
Six Years Ago:  Homemade Crystallized Ginger

Brown Butter Marshmallow Popcorn

When I saw this recipe for Caramel Marshmallow Popcorn, I just knew I had to make it.  Rice Krispies Treats are one of my favorite snacks, and well, you all know how much I love popcorn.  The only thing is, I noticed in a couple of the comments that the popcorn would get really, really hard after it cooled down, and I wanted something more like the softer texture of Rice Krispies treats rather than caramel corn.

I figured the reason it was getting hard was the addition of brown sugar, so I decided to stick with a more traditional Rice Krispies treat recipe with just marshmallows and butter.  But I couldn't help tweaking it a bit based on my friend Ilene's Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats post by first browning the butter and adding some vanilla bean and salt.

Brown Butter Marshmallow Popcorn

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 vanilla bean
1 10 oz. bag mini marshmallows
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
9 cups popped popcorn (unpopped kernels removed)

 
In a large pot, melt the butter on low heat.

 
Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds.  Add to the melted butter.

Continue to cook the butter on low until the milk solids start to brown.

Remove from heat, add the salt and mini marshmallows and stir to combine.

 
Return the pot to low heat and stir to completely melt the marshmallows.

 
Once the marshmallows have completely melted, add the popcorn and stir to combine.

 
Line a baking dish with parchment paper and spray with baking spray.  Pour the popcorn into the dish and allow to cool.

The cooled popcorn never got as crunchy as Rice Krispies Treat do, but that might be because I didn't use a full 9 cups of popcorn and the popcorn to marshmallow ratio was off.  I really loved how the vanilla bean and browned butter brought the marshmallows and popcorn to a-whole-nother level.  When I make this again, I'd probably add more salt and maybe some butter flavoring to reinforce the popcorn flavor (as well as make sure I have enough popcorn to start off with). Or just use a bag of butter flavored microwave popcorn!  =)

Garlic Thyme Popcorn

I still had a lot of fresh thyme left after making the Caramelized Onion and Swiss Chard Quiche so when I saw this recipe on Gilt Taste, I got really excited.  I already had all the ingredients, and I love popcorn!

 
Well, I had all the ingredients except for the duck fat.  =(  But I remember reading somewhere that popping corn in coconut oil was really delicious, so I used that instead for the popping oil and used substituted butter for the dressing.  You can't go wrong with butter on popcorn, right?

 
Garlic Thyme Popcorn (based on Francis Lam's recipe)
Makes 2 quarts, enough for 2-4 people as a serious snack

3 tablespoons butter
7 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves stripped and chopped (about 1 tablespoon leaves)
1-2 garlic cloves, smashed (1 is lovely and balanced, 2 is more heady)
1 1”x2” strip orange peel
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1/3 cup popping corn
Fine salt, to taste
Grated orange zest, to taste, for garnish

In the smallest saucepan you have, melt the butter over very low heat. Add about 2/3 of the thyme leaves, the thyme stems, garlic, and orange peel and gently infuse for 12-15 minutes. If the butter gets hot enough to start sizzling more than just a whisper, take it off heat for a minute or two, then place it back on the heat.

Heat the coconut oil and 4 kernels of popcorn over medium-high heat in the 3-quart saucepan. Cover the pot.

Once the tester kernels have popped, add the rest of the corn and shake the pan so that they’re laying in one layer. Add a few pinches of salt, cover the pan, take it off the heat, and count to 30.

Put the pan back on the heat, and wait for some hot popping action. As it starts to go, gently shake the pan to let the unpopped kernels fall back to the bottom, and every few seconds lift the lid ever so slightly to let some steam escape. Once the popping slows to a few seconds between pops, turn off the heat and uncover the pot.

Taste a few pieces for salt. Sprinkle on some more salt, if needed. Remove the garlic cloves, thyme stems, and orange peel from the butter, and evenly spoon the “dressing” onto the popcorn, stirring and tossing to get an even coat. Taste the popcorn 2/3 of the way through the dressing; you may like it less dressed. Add remaining dressing if you’d like.

 

Finish popcorn by sprinkling the remaining thyme leaves all over the top. Grate on a little more orange zest (I used a Microplane for this), and serve. It keeps in a covered container for 2-3 days. If you like, you can refresh it in a warm oven for a few minutes before serving.

I'd like to repeat that you should taste the popcorn after dressing it with 2/3 of the butter.  I forgot that step and added all the butter to the popcorn.  It was definitely too much for me, which is saying a lot, considering how much I like buttered popcorn.

Bacon Caramel Corn

It started with the best and healthiest of intentions. When I saw that Boston Organics was offering organic popcorn as an add-on, I thought, "Ooh! I love popcorn; I should order some!" And then once I received it, I thought, I could use my air popper (thanks, Susan, I'm still using it after all these years!) to pop this. But then the evil food fairy that sits on my left shoulder said, "Yes, you could, but what's the unhealthiest thing you could do with this?"

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you bacon caramel corn.

With all the hoopla over bacon the past couple of years, I figured (correctly) that I couldn't have been the first person to come up with the idea and googled for a recipe. I used the one I found on bunrab.com, and the only changes I made were omitting the almonds, using a cup of light brown sugar and a cup of dark brown sugar instead of 2 cups of golden brown sugar, and popping the popcorn in bacon fat, just because I had some and wanted to see what popcorn popped in bacon fat tasted like.

Bacon Caramel Corn (based on bunrab's recipe)
makes 3 pints

1/2 pound bacon
1/3 cup organic popcorn kernels*
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar (I used 1 cup light and 1 cup dark just because)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cut bacon into a fine dice and fry until crisp. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat.

Heat the bacon fat in a large pot with a cover. Add 3 popcorn kernels and cover. Listen for all three kernels to pop, and add the rest of the popcorn kernels. Cover and shake until popping stops. Put popped corn in a non-stick roasting pan, making sure to remove the unpopped kernels.

Preheat oven to 200°F.

Heat butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt in a saucepan over medium high heat until it reaches 300°F on your candy thermometer.

Remove from heat, stir in baking soda and bacon (the caramel will explode in volume at this point so make sure you use a large enough saucepan) and pour this caramel mixture over the popcorn (do this quickly so that the caramel doesn’t cool and stiffen).

Stir the mixture with a couple wooden spoons and place in the oven for a total of an hour rearranging the popcorn to evenly distribute the caramel and bacon every 15 minutes. Add more salt (if necessary) during this process. Cool and break into bite-sized pieces.

*Popping 1/3 cup of organic popcorn kernels gave me ~6 cups popped corn plus quite a few unpopped kernels. I'd guess if you are using a gourmet popping corn you may need to use less than 1/3 cup of kernels to get 6 cups of popped corn, which is the amount you need for this recipe.

So I tried some of the bacon fat-popped corn before dousing it with the caramel, and while I could taste a whiff of bacon, I personally think butter pairs better with popcorn. Bacon and caramel, however, pair together wonderfully (a fact which I will devote the next post to). Do I really need to describe how awesome bacon, caramel, and popcorn taste together? It's so good I had to hide this from some of my vegetarian friends for fear they'd give up their convictions just to try some. See what a good friend I am?

Next:  Bacon Fat Caramels

Previously:   Faux Momofuku Brussels Sprouts

Kettle Corn

Each spring, I look forward to my first game of the season at Fenway Park. The last three years in a row, I've been lucky enough to get tickets to Opening Day, thanks to my wonderful, beautiful friends who really, really love me. And while the quality of food offered there is sorely lacking, I can never resist the kettle corn sold in the Grand Concourse. The aroma of the fresh popped corn plus the melted sugar is all the advertisement it needs. Of course, it's best when it's still hot, or at least warm, but sometimes all you get is the already-bagged kind which, let's face it, just doesn't compare.

I was craving some the other day, and since it is no longer baseball season, I figured I'd try making some, following Jen's recipe on Tiny Urban Kitchen. If you haven't read her food blog before, you should definitely check it out. I knew her personally before either of us started food blogging, and her pictures and the recipes she attempts are leagues beyond my own. Thankfully, this recipe is really quite simple!

Kettle Corn (from Tiny Urban Kitchen)
makes one big bowl, a little too much for one hungry, popcorn-loving girl, but probably not enough for two ;)

1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 cup sugar
Salt to taste

Put the oil in a pot (ideally a pot with handles and a cover!) and heat to medium high.

Put 3 kernels in the oil and wait for the three kernels to pop. When this happens, you know the oil is hot enough.

Add the rest of the kernels. They should be spread out in one thin layer at the bottom of the pot.

Cover and let pop; it should start popping almost immediately. Start shaking the covered pot around to let the kernels shake around so that the un-popped kernels can get to the bottom where it's hot and also so the popped popcorn doesn't burn.

When the popping seems to have slowed down a bit, carefully lift the lid and dump the sugar in.

Continue shaking the covered pot around, distributing the sugar and letting the rest of the kernels pop.

When it seems like the popping has slowed considerably (1-2 minutes), remove the pot from heat and let it cool. Add salt and stir the popcorn around to make sure the sugar and salt is evenly distributed.

Jen mentions that you can use more oil if you want (up to 1/3 cup) and more sugar if you like, but one of the things I like about kettle corn is how the little kiss of sweet and salty makes you crave more. Too much sugar and you might as well make caramel corn.