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TOP IT UP WITH POPCORN
Ingredients
200gm bacon, 100gm jalapenos, 10ml olive oil, 10 cloves garlic, 2gm chilli flakes, 1gm mixed herbs, salt and pepper to taste, 1 egg, 100gm popcorn, 200gm prawns, 40gm sweet chilli sauce Method
Chop bacon and jalapenos and leave in a hot oven overnight to dry. Make sure the oven is heated at 220 degrees Celsius for two hours and then turned off, before you put the bacon and jalapenos to dry. In the morning, grind the bacon and jalapenos mix in a grinder till it becomes a fine powder.
Heavily dust the popcorn hulls with the bacon powder and leave aside for two hours. Once the popcorn gets the bacon and jalapenos flavour, crush it and keep aside in an airtight jar.
Take fresh prawns, wash them, dry them and marinate with oil, garlic, herbs, chilli flakes and egg. Leave aside for 20 minutes. Coat the prawns with the crushed popcorn mix, and deep fry for two minutes or till golden brown.
Add more bacon powder to the fried prawns for strong flavouring, if needed. Serve with sweet chilli sauce and enjoy.
Ameya Mahajani, consultant chef,
Aromas Café
Anjali Shetty
Acrunchy and healthy snack, the humble popcorn has gone through a drastic transformation over the years in terms of flavour, texture and cooking methods. While people still prefer popping them over the stove or gas, the microwave method has enabled to make it a quick and easy snack.
Made out of corn kernels, popcorn is not as recent a food invention as we think it to be. Corn has been domesticated for about 10,000 years and archaeologists discovered that people have known and consumed popcorn for thousands of years. While it began its journey as the simple salted variation, the different flavours and combinations available currently is astounding, with interesting flavours such as chilli cheese, salted caramel, brownie popcorn, and many more.
Shedding light on the types of popcorn, Ishijyot Surri, executive chef, Pachinco Café, explains, “The kernels of the popcorn are divided into yellow and white kernels, and in each of these there are many varieties. The yellow popcorn are available in two sizes — the baby and the large variants, and have a definite flavour. The white kernels pop into a smaller size than the yellow ones and have a neutral taste. For this reason, these are the preferred choice when combining with different ingredients, and for lacing the toppings.”
Popcorn is finally out of cinema halls and is also used as an alternative to wafers for snacking. It’s widely used in picnics, packed lunches, long car rides, kids’ snack boxes, post school snacks and more. Manish Khanna, chef, Noir and Brownie Point, feels one can experiment with flavours at home and combine popcorn with what suits one’s palate. He says, “Some fun flavours to try would be smoked paprika and spice, buttered maple and spice, salt and vinegar, sesame and fish sauce, garlic salt sprinkle, sesame seeds sprinkle, and wasabi edamame popcorns.”
Ameya Mahajani, consultant chef, Aromas Café, adds, “Some flavours that I personally would like to experiment with are olive oil and rock salt butter, parmesan and rosemary, nori and toasted sesame, bacon and garlic powder, salted and spicy peanuts, sour cream and onion, smoked cheddar and barbecue, honey mustard and jalapenos and chilli and lemon.”
Another advantage is the fact that it is a great comfort food that one can enjoy without having to worry about the calories as it doesn’t involve frying at all. Chef Surri adds, “In addition to the basic flavours like salt, caramel and cheese, one can also experiment with ingredients such as whipped cream with caramel pop corn,
Manish Khanna, chef, Noir and Brownie Point or combine with berries.”
Chef Khanna shares, “Apart from only flavoured popcorn, it’s being used more extensively in our kitchens as coating for fried meats, and in chocolate sauces, rocky road brownies, and other desserts.”
For sweet popcorn recipes — the hulls of the popcorn can be added to protein bars and granola bars, caramel popcorn brownies or butter toffee popcorn tarts.
Chef Surri suggests that if you are bored of eating popcorn as is or with laced flavours, you can make a number of dishes using them as a primary or complimentary ingredient. “You can use popcorn as a base ingredient to make many sweet and savoury dishes. Adding popcorn to chocolate chip cookies, blending it with ice cream mix to get a delicious and nutty popcorn flavoured ice cream, dark chocolate popcorn brownies, granola bars embedded with popcorn, popcorn and oats porridge, pita pocket sandwiches with chicken and popcorn, are a few of the many favourites,” he says.
Ingredients
200gm chicken (boneless cubes), 30gm red chilli paste, salt to taste, 5ml dark soy, 1 pinch chilli flakes, 2-3gm chicken broth powder, 5ml siracha sauce, 50gm coarsely ground popcorn, 30gm refined flour, 15ml corn flour slurry, oil for frying Method
Wash the boneless chicken thoroughly. Cut it into small cubes. In a bowl, mix together red chilli paste, dark soy sauce, chilli flakes and sriracha sauce. Add salt as required. Leave it aside for 30 minutes and later, drain the excess marination.
For the seasoned flour, mix together refined flour, chicken broth powder and salt. Coat each and every cube of marinated chicken with the seasoned flour. Dip the coated chicken cubes into the corn flour slurry and take it out. Again, coat the slurry dipped chicken cubes with coarsely ground popcorns. Repeat the same for all the cubes. Heat oil in a deep bottom pan. Once the oil is heated, deep fry all the chicken and serve it with tomato ketchup. Ishijyot Surri, executive chef, Pachinco Café