For #NationalPopcornDay day or any day, these recipes are guaranteed to put pep in your pop.
Is there any pairing more classic than movies and popcorn? Like baseball and peanuts or the Super Bowl and wings, these combos are so pitch-perfect together that neither seems quite as much fun without its partner.
Popcorn is in many ways the ideal snack food. It’s minimally processed, especially if you pop your own from plain kernels, and even contains some beneficial dietary fiber. And 1 cup of air-popped popcorn has about 30 calories (oil-popped is about 55 calories per cup, still a relative bargain), so it is generally a less caloric choice than chips or fries. And when you make it at home and doctor it up in any of a hundred possible ways, you skip the fake “buttery topping” and control the salt.
In fact, popcorn doesn’t have to be salty at all. When I was in Paris some years ago I had a free afternoon and decided to see a movie. At the snack counter when I ordered a small popcorn I was asked, “sucre ou sel?”—sugar or salt? Sure enough, beneath the counter were two bins, one with plain, lightly salted popcorn the other with lightly sweetened corn (not drizzled with caramel Cracker Jack style). When I asked in my halting French if I could have both, the woman alternated scoops from each bin into a paper bag as if it had been the most natural request in the world. OMG, what a revelation. Each mouthful was bursting with sweetness heightened by the dash of salt. I have long forgotten what movie I saw, but I’ll never forget the simple pleasure of that salty sweet snack.
So next time you’re settling in for a movie marathon or snack hour, why limit yourself to a salty or savory choice? It won’t take much time or effort to toss together a double batch of flavored popcorns, one sweet and one savory. And if you decide to mix them together, I won’t be mad at ya!
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