Popping some corn (kernels)!

You know those little white, sometimes yellowish and brown flaky, sweet aroma, crunchy and soft at the same bite puffs? Yup, popcorn! Ooo I really enjoy having them while watching a movie. However, most would say that store bought popcorn is not healthy because of the excess sugar and sodium that comes with it (and whatever else they add into them), to make them tasty for our palette. But if we make them ourselves, it should be healthier?

Recently, I started craving for these little puffs, especially since cinemas have been closed for a long while. I browsed around and found homemade popcorn recipes. Some recipes asked to pop the corn kernels at the stove and separately melt sugar to create the caramel sauce, and then coat the popcorn before putting them into the oven to bake. Some shared recipes that looked simple enough but bland looking, while some were simple yet complicated at the same time, to a point that I didn't want to look at the recipes. It seemed like too much work and I wanted to keep it simple.

My head started imagining the taste that I like, and the mind started thinking of popping them this way. I bought a packet of corn kernels and decided to pop them! I was not sure how to do it but I just wanted to pop some corn! And this was how I popped them:

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of corn kernels.

• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (this adds a soft tinge of aroma to the end result).

• 1 tablespoon of honey (I was thinking honey should be a healthier option? :)

• A pot with lid:

  • a size big enough to hold the potentially popped corn (for 2 tablespoons of corn kernels, I used a 16cm saucepan).

  • better to have one that is easy to wash surface because once we add honey or some sort of sweets, it will get messy.

  • a lid is absolutely important to prevent accidental explosion of any kind.

Here are the steps...

Step 1 - Place the corn kernels into a pot.

• Mix the oil and honey to make sure the corn kernels are nicely coated.

Step 2 - Cover the pot with its lid and place the pot on low to medium heat.

Step 3 - Wait and shake the pot a little, every now and then, to move the corn kernels to get the heat evenly spread across and to avoid them getting burn.

Step 4 - After 10 minutes, maybe 12 or 15, depending on the fire, the corn kernels will start to pop! It was quite exhilarating :)

I read in some recipes that if we keep the heat low, we should be able to get all the kernels popped without them getting burnt. Mine was a little burnt because I got impatient which I don't mind because I like them slightly crunchy and burnt too.

After the explosions have stopped, we can open the lid and add more honey if needed.

Aahh.. my "healthy" popcorn (I would like to think so :D)

Do you pop your own corn? How do you pop them? :)

All photos were taken using my mobile phone, resized and added watermark using Canva.