Savory Garlic Popcorn


According to the weather reports, a “menacing storm” is moving in this weekend. Even though there’s no room to put it, Southern Ontario can welcome another foot of snow. To cope with the impending downfall, I’m adopting the maybe-it-will-go-away school of thought. I’m going to hunker down on the sofa and catch up on a backlog of movies while consuming all the popcorn I made for this blog. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Caramel corn has been done to death and those who know my stance on the over-use of this sugary coating won’t be surprised I opted for a savory rendition of the classic movie treat. During my hunt for an unusual garlic recipe I came across a perfect excuse to examine the often-ignored garlic mandolin. So, how could I resist?

Smaller than the standard mandolin, this is designed to slice (or grate, depending on which side of the blade you use) a single clove of garlic.

No stinky-garlic fingers, no uneven nubs. Just perfectly uniform, slices of garlic. Fast, easy to clean and with no wastage, I was impressed.

Gadget Gauge: Whether this $20 item is worth the money depends on your cooking style. If all your recipes call for whole or crushed garlic, then you’ll have no use for this. However, the adventuresome might find it encourages them to push the culinary envelope. (Note: this is a garlic-only gadget. It’s not strong enough to slice ginger and too small for onions.)

Garlic mandolin in hand, I adapted the following recipe from Sally Schneider’s The Improvisational Cook.

Rosemary and Garlic Popcorn
Printable recipe
Make 12 cups, enough for 4 polite people or 1 honest glutton

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup popping corn popped according to your favourite method
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Put butter, oil, garlic and rosemary in a large skillet.
2. Cover and cook very slowly over low heat, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until the garlic is lightly golden. Do not brown the garlic since it will become bitter.

3. Uncover and cook until the garlic is crisp, about 2 minutes.
4. Remove garlic, drizzle popcorn with rosemary oil, tossing well.
5. Season with salt and pepper, toss again and serve immediately.

Note: You can discard the garlic chips or eat them. They were too strong for my tastes, but Andrew munched them like potato chips.

Variations:
• Substitute sage for rosemary
• Omit butter and use more olive oil
• Add a whole dried chili (remove with garlic chips)
• Omit rosemary and use cumin seeds and coriander seeds (and a dried chili)

With a large bowl of popcorn and your favourite beverage, sit back, relax and enjoy the movie. And don’t even think about the snow that’s falling while you lounge on the couch. With any luck it will go away on its own (by spring).