I recently found out, via the internet so it must be totally true because the internet never lies, that chefs who are too tired to cook at the end of the day will often just eat popcorn for dinner. I would link you to the article I read, but I didn’t save it and I don’t feel like rooting around for it.
Anyway, I thought that was rather interesting. If I’m too tired/lazy to cook for myself at the end of the day AND I can’t be bothered to go out to eat/pick up food, I generally just have cereal or a sandwich. These are things I normally have on hand. These are things I normally eat through the summer when it’s too hot to cook and I don’t have much of an appetite anyway. Or sometimes I will just eat half a watermelon and be done with it. But you’ll notice that all of these are cold foods. What if I want a hot meal? I guess it’s popcorn to the rescue!
The article took pains to point out that this wasn’t just normal microwave popcorn. No, no. This was stove-popped or air-popped popcorn that was tossed with things like fresh herbs and seasonings. It was fancypants popcorn. As you would expect.
I decided to give it a try. Popcorn is relatively healthy, after all. I mean, if you don’t drown it in butter or something. And I’ve been wanting to give stove-top popping another go. I tried it once with a mixing bowl and a foil lid, but didn’t really like the results. This time I tried a chef’s pan since mine has a nice, tight-fitting lid.
It worked rather well. I think I might like doing it this way over my microwave popcorn method when I want to toss in some seasoning or grated parm or something. It’s easier to toss since it’s already in a pan.
In case you were wondering, I heat about a teaspoon of oil (grapeseed this time) and throw in a couple of kernels and wait for them to pop before dumping about a quarter cup of kernels into the pan and covering. Then I shake it around and revel in the popping sounds. This last time I tossed in some freshly grated parm, sea salt, and rosemary.
Random moosages as I see fit. 