Popcorn. A low fat, tasty snack. It can be had sweet or savoury and it has this niggling habit of sticking in between your teeth. I don't know of a kid that doesn't love popcorn. Adult, well, maybe not so much.
So I was trawling Facebook as you do and I saw that my friend Sukh had put up a picture of this savoury bacon maple syrup popcorn. I kid you not, my mouth immediately began to water. I was already imagining the combination of these two flavours on a fluffy crisp kernel of corn. Nom nom!!!
The marriage of maple syrup and bacon is not unfamiliar to me. Often I make bacon pancakes and slather loads of maple syrup on but the thought of popcorn with the same flavours was too exciting to pass up.
The recipe and method is terribly easy and once the popcorn is done, I guarantee you it wont last 5 minutes in the bowl.
Makes 2 large bowls
1/2 cup popcorn seeds
200 grams of streaky bacon
1/3 cup of maple syrup (you can use honey too)
8 tablespoons vegetable oil
First is to cook the bacon to crispy. I put mine under the grill on a medium to low heat on the middle shelf for about 7 to 10 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn and just kept checking on it. The idea here is that the bacon should still have some good colour and be crisp. Once the bacon is cooked, pat it down thoroughly with a kitchen towel to remove the excess oil.
Cut up the bacon into pieces and put them into a spice grinder. Blend until it forms a sort of powder or paste. Scoop out the bacon goodness and set aside.
Next, heat up about 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large pan on medium heat. To test if it's hot enough, drop 1 popcorn seed in and if it pops, you are ready to go. Put half the seeds and cover the pan with the lid as the corn pops. Wait until they are popping at intervals of 2 to 3 seconds before taking off the heat and placing into a large bowl.
Put in half of the ground bacon and half of the maple syrup. Cover the bowl with a flat tray and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE vigorously for about 2 minutes. This makes sure that all the popcorn in evenly coated
Repeat the same for the rest of the corn and serve up the goodness!
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