Hubby and I barely ate popcorn. We don't even buy it when we watch movie at a movie theater. Well, we rarely go to movie theater because I am probably one of those weirdos that don't like to watch movie with bunch of strangers in an enclosed dark room (wow! now it sounds very unappealing). Poor hubby because he still cannot convinced me about how fun a place called movie theater is. But we still go to that place once in a while when there are great movies such as Star Trek movie (yes, it's that long). Even when we go to a movie theater, we don't buy popcorn. I don't know why we never bought into the popcorn culture.

Last week on the CSA bin, we found a brown bag of colorful dried corns on the cobs. Our CSA farmers sent us a note:
"Popcorn - we grew a very rare and beautiful land race, open-pollinated, non-GMO pre-Trail of Tears Cherokee popcorn variety this year. Land race means that it produces ears of various colors; however, at a fairly consistent ratio. It produces smallish popped corn but typically pops 100% of kernels...tasty and a neat variety from the past."

I always thought that colorful corns are for Fall ornaments only. I was wrong. They turned out to be great popcorn! To make popcorn, the whole corn on the cob can be placed in a paper bag and be popped in the microwave. Other method is by removing the kernels from the cob then popped on the stove. I picked the latter. I used a pan that has a glass lid so hubby & I could see the corn popping. Hubby & I was excited like little kids when we saw it's happening.
Popping dried corn reminded me of my childhood. One day mom bought a bag of dried corn and popped the corn using a big AMC pan. AMC is a great pan brand that my mom adores until now. I remember how terrified I was of the popping sound of the corn! Now that I think about it, I got scared easily by sounds in the kitchen. One other sound I hated was the loud hissing sound out of mom's pressure cooker (presto) pan. The sound was always accompanied by wiggled little knob on the lid. I always afraid the knob would pop at anytime, so I tried to avoid kitchen when grandma was pressure cooking something.
Popcorn on The Stove
Source:
Food Network - Alton Brown
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons peanut oil
3 ounces popcorn kernels, approximately 1/2 cup
1/2 teaspoon popcorn salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Place the oil, popcorn and salt in a large, 6-quart, metal mixing bowl. Cover with the lid.
Place the bowl over medium heat and shake constantly using a pair of tongs to hold the bowl. Continue shaking until the popcorn finishes popping, approximately 3 minutes.
Remove the bowl from the heat and carefully remove the lid. Stir in any salt that is on the side of the bowl. Serve immediately.