Tag: Vegetarian

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Recipes Sides

Scallion, Celeriac and Cucumber Slaw

Slaws are very useful dishes this time of year. They’re quick to throw together, and can be made well in advance of mealtime. They can be left to rest in the fridge, their flavours infusing while you take it easy enjoying the sun with an aperitif. Using fresh ingredients means minimal processing and little, if any, cooking.

I like experimenting with different combinations of raw ingredients. This is one I made recently, that delivers a good tasty crunch with sticks of celeriac, chopped scallions (or spring onions, from the garden) and roasted wholemeal croutons. The mayo and white wine vinegar dressing is spiced up with a little Dijon mustard and fresh dill. This is complemented with fine silky slivers of cucumber that bring some cool respite on the tongue.

Fancy giving it a go?

Servings

Served as a side salad alongside a main (such as a quiche) and other side salads, this will be enough for 4 adults.

Timings

10 – 15 mins to prepare.

You Will Need

  • half a cucumber
  • 1tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 3 scallions
  • 200g celeriac
  • 100g slices of wholemeal bread
  • a handful of fresh dill
  • some olive or rapeseed oil
  • 2 good tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • seasalt and ground black pepper

Method

  1. Cut the cucumber lengthwise into cylinder shapes about 10 – 12 cm long, and then cut each into quarters lengthwise. Scrape out and discard the soft, squishy middle. Then, using a veg peeler, shave each piece of cucumber into long, thin ribbons. Place into a serving bowl.
  2. Next, cut the rough, outer edges from the celeriac and discard. Cut the remaining flesh into matchstick size pieces about 3cm long. Add to the cucumber.
  3. Cut the scallions into pieces the same length as the celeriac sticks, and add to the bowl.
  4. Add the wine vinegar and chopped dill, giving it all a good stir to coat the salad ingredients.
  5. Mix the mayo and mustard and add to the bowl. Add a few twists of salt and pepper. Give it another good stir to combine, and then place in the fridge till mealtime.
  6. Finally, cut the slices of bread into cubes, drizzle with oil and roast, spread out on a tray for 5 mins at 180C. Allow to cool.
  7. Just before serving, take the salad from the fridge and arrange the wholemeal croutons on top. Then serve.

Customise it!

Try to keep to the 3 core ingredients but, beyond this, feel free to experiment e.g. cider vinegar if you prefer, or different fresh herbs to replace the dill. Melt parmesan over the croutons while roasting, or add garlic to the dressing. The possibilities are nearly endless!

Next track for the ADK Playlist is a very catchy tune that’s been playing this week in the ADK Kitchen. It will get your toes tapping as you chop those scallions and celeriac sticks. This is The Wiseguys with Ooh La La.

Categories
Sides

Royal Blood Orange Salad

Now here’s a vibrantly coloured salad to liven up your patio table and get your summer lunch guests talking.

Slices of fresh orange are combined with wafer thin slivers of raw beetroot, in a sweet and sour dressing, topped with roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds infused with the taste of fennel.

The inspiration came from a chef I admire a lot, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. That deep shade of purpley-red that the fruit takes on from the beetroot juices (see my photo above) reminded me of blood oranges. As the music of Brighton duo, Royal Blood, was playing a lot in the ADK Kitchen when I was making this, I decided to call it my Royal Blood Orange Salad.

Still with me? Here’s how it’s made.

Servings

This is a side salad, rather than a main. Along with other salads as part of a summer lunch table, it will serve 4 people.

Timings

10 mins to chop and prepare, before leaving to marinate for 2 hours before serving. 15 mins to make the roasted seed topping, which is added just before serving.

You Will Need

  • 2 small beetroot, raw
  • 2 medium sized fresh oranges
  • 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp soft brown sugar
  • seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

For the roasted seed topping:

  • 2 tbsp fennel seeds
  • half tsp seasalt
  • 1 and a half tsp caster sugar
  • 40g pumpkin seeds
  • 40g sunflower seeds
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil

Method

  1. Peel the outer skin from the beetroot. Using a vegetable peeler, cut the beetroot into wafer thin slivers.
  2. Trim the top and bottom off each orange. Then, standing each orange on a chopping board, trim off the skin and pith, leaving a fleshy orange ball. Cut horizontally into slices about 1cm thick.
  3. Put the beetroot and orange in a bowl and add the white wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss to combine, and place in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.
  4. Meanwhile, prepare the seed topping. Begin by pre-heating the oven to 180C.
  5. Using a pestle and mortar, grind the fennel seeds, salt and sugar to a fine powder. Then place the powder in a bowl with the pumpkin and sunflower seeds, oil and 1 tbsp water, and stir to combine.
  6. Line an oven tray with baking paper, and spread the seed mix out upon it. Place in the oven for about 8 mins.
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  8. Remove the marinated orange and beetroot from the fridge, giving it a gentle stir. Sprinkle the cooled seed mix over and serve.

Customise It!

Mmm, an interesting one! There’s quite a delicate mix of flavours and colours in here, so I’m wary of messing too much with it. There is something faintly oriental about the sweet and sour dressing, so the next time I make this I think I will try Chinese 5 spice in place of the fennel seeds and see how that goes.

The roasted seed mix I really liked, so much so that I kept some for snacking on (see my photo below). It was also great as a topping sprinkled over muesli at breakfast time.

I was experimenting with this salad in the days before seeing Muse at Milton Keynes Bowl (see Hysteria for more). Royal Blood were supporting Muse at the concert, and I was playing their music in the ADK Kitchen in preparation for seeing them live.

They were great to see, and went down very well with the 65,000 crowd. I was particularly interested to see if and how Mike Kerr could reproduce that distinctive sound when playing live. If you haven’t heard them, he manages to draw a very expansive range from one bass guitar, making it sound like he is playing two or more guitars. I noticed he was making a lot of use of foot pedals to achieve distortion. Incredibly, he could produce chords by simply banging the frame of the guitar with his fist, without touching any of the strings.

Royal Blood are popular, well regarded and critically acclaimed. It is very much deserved. Here they are with Boilermaker.

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Blog

Fresh Strawberries

This time of year, paying a visit to a Pick Your Own (PYO) Strawberry Farm can be a lot of fun for all the family. Just look at this character greeting us on arrival this week at our local PYO – how could one resist?

The previous occasion when I visited a PYO Farm was Christmas Eve. We were in Victoria State, Australia, and had decided to make fresh strawberries the pudding course in the dinner for 9 that we were hosting on Christmas Day. Strawberries for Christmas? It sounds a bit weird to we northern hemisphere types. Even more so when the PYO Farm’s festive musical accompaniment to the strawberry picking includes Shakin’ Stevens belting out Snow is falling, All around us… (What? There was a bright blue sky and it was 30C).

Just to put any concerns at rest, let me make clear that this post will not conclude with me adding Shaky to the ADK Playlist. Phew!

This week’s trip was to Pickwell Farm in Southampton. The coastal area stretching east from the city’s outskirts towards the village of Hamble has been a soft fruit growing area for decades.

As my photos below show, the strawberry plants are plentiful, and the fruit ripe and rich in colour.

Here is the haul from our visit – a kilo and a half of fresh strawberries.

The kilo has been made into jam, by boiling the fruit in water with preserving sugar. The half has been made into fresh ice cream – I used the recipe I posted last summer which you can check out here. Alternatively, you could make Eton Rifles Mess!

Do you have a Pick Your Own Farm near you? If so, why not check it out. With the fruit still on the stalks, you can be assured of optimum freshness, and be your own boss of quality control. You will be doing your bit to support local businesses and reducing food miles. What’s more, the prices should be much less than you’ll pay in the supermarket (hey, there must be some trade-off for providing all that manual labour!) Best of all, it is a really fun activity.

I toyed with adding Strawberry Fields Forever to the ADK Playlist with this post. However, good though the Beatles are, they aren’t really my era, so I’m going instead for a fave Scottish band, Franz Ferdinand. This is Fresh Strawberries.

Categories
Bakes Mains Recipes

Sweet Potato, Red Pepper & Feta Strudel

Today’s post completes a hat-trick of savoury vegetarian Strudels, with my third and final filling mix.

This one is beautifully rich in colour and taste, with the bright orange and red of roasted sweet potato and red pepper peeping through the arms of the puff pastry lattice work. Cubes of feta cheese add contrast and a little saltiness. There’ll be enough here for a midweek meal for two.

For a recap on the others, check out Spicy Veg Strudel and Leek, Stilton & Walnut Strudel.

As with my previous Strudel recipes, the filling is pretty easy to put together. Put 2 – 3 medium size sweet potatoes on a roasting tray. Chop half a red pepper into 4 – 5 large pieces and place alongside the sweet potatoes. Drizzle the red pepper pieces with a little oil, and roast in the oven at 180C for 25 mins.

Once roasted, split the sweet potatoes with a knife and scrape the soft orange flesh into a bowl. Chop the red pepper (which should now be soft and a little charred at the edges) into smaller pieces and add to the sweet potato. Give it a stir to mix it up, and leave to cool. When cooled, add in 100g feta cheese, cubed or crumbled, and stir again to mix.

Prepare 250g of ready made puff pastry as shown in the photos in Spicy Veg Strudel, this time using the sweet potato, pepper and feta mix to fill. Roll up the lattice as shown in those photos and, as with the other Strudels, baste with milk and sprinkle over some nigella seeds. Bake for 25 mins at 180C.

Cut into slices of your chosen size, and serve. The Strudel can be eaten warm or cold, perhaps with a green salad or your favourite green veg.

All these references to lattice in my last few posts has been reminding me of the line ” ..crawling the tightrope along the lattice work..” from a track I’ve always admired. It’s a song about a woman who tends a mysterious garden where the sun doesn’t fall, yet the plants flourish, and where the animals are afraid to go. The chorus is “magic in her hands, she could make anything grow, magic in her hands, she had green fingers”.

In another curious twist of poetic symmetry, the artist herself has recently returned to playing live after some 15 years away from the stage, which is a joy to see.

It could only be from one person, really, so here’s a track for the ADK Playlist for any goths out there. This is Siouxsie and the Banshees with Green Fingers.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3bwffGHk0FPYKkFpvPovCU?si=0db0445784e14e4f
Categories
Bakes Mains Recipes

Leek, Stilton & Walnut Strudel

Here’s another savoury, vegetarian Strudel filling, using the technique featured in my previous post to make a latticed wrap with puff pastry.

The 3 star ingredients – buttered leek, blue stilton cheese and chopped walnuts – are a classic combo that go really well together. You should get a creamy, satisfying taste with a hint of saltiness from the cheese.

Chop and soften a leek in a saucepan, with a knob of butter. After about 10 mins, chuck in 100g of crumbled blue stilton cheese and 50g of chopped walnuts. Give it a good stir so the cheese melts in the warm buttery leek and the walnuts are spread throughout the mix. Set aside to cool for another 10 mins or so.

Roll out and prepare 250g of a pack of puff pastry as shown in the series of photos in Spicy Veg Strudel, this time filling it with the leek, stilton and walnut mix. Fold it up as shown in the photos, baste with a little milk and top with a sprinkling of nigella seeds. Cook in an oven at 180C for 25 mins, till golden and looking like the main photo above.

Serve warm, in generous slices. Enjoy.

There’s one more strudel filling idea to come, so check it out in the next midweek post.

Here’s a track I heard by chance on the car radio recently, and really liked, so I thought I would share it here. It’s by German DJ/producer Timo Maas – To Get Down.

Categories
Bakes Mains Recipes

Spicy Veg Strudel

Strudel – isn’t that a German dessert with spiced apple? Well, yes that’s true. However, I had the idea of making a savoury version with a vegetarian filling and, instead of a dusting of icing sugar, topping it with a sprinkling of nigella seeds.

Once you’ve made the filling and let it cool, it is fairly quick to put together, especially as I’ve used a pack of pre-made puff pastry. It’s fun to make, as you’ll see from the photos below, and looks great when it emerges from the oven.

Servings

A tea time meal for 2.

Timings

15 mins to make the filling, and 10 mins to roll it up. About 25 mins in the oven at 180C.

You Will Need

  • drop of oil
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • half a red onion
  • 4 – 5 mushrooms
  • 1 celery stick
  • 1 400g tin of kidney beans
  • 1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • a handful of fresh coriander
  • a few leaves of kale or spring greens
  • half a 500g pack of puff pastry (i.e. 250g)
  • a little milk for basting
  • a handful of nigella seeds

Method

  1. Put the onion, celery and mushrooms in a food processor with blade fitted and blitz until finely chopped (but not pureed).
  2. Warm the oil, garlic, chilli powder and cumin seeds in a pan till sizzling. Add the blitzed vegetables and leave for a few minutes to soften.
  3. In the meantime, put the kidney beans, tomatoes, coriander and kale/greens into the food processor and blitz again till finely chopped (but not pureed). Tip into the frying pan.
  4. Give it all a good stir and leave to cook. You want the water to evaporate leaving a thick, mixed vegetable paste that will hold its shape and not be runny. Leave to cool, and turn the oven on to 180C.
  5. Open the pack of puff pastry and cut in half, putting one half back in the fridge to use another time. Roll the other half out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, to make a rectangle approx. 40cm x 20cm.
  6. Cut a piece from each of the corners as shown in the first photo below. Make cuts in each side to about one third of the way across, again as shown in the first photo. It should look like a Christmas tree on it’s side, with a top and bottom, and branches about 1 – 2cm thick.
  7. Place the cooled filling along the centre (the trunk of the tree). It is important that it has cooled, otherwise it will start to melt the uncooked pastry.
  8. Tuck in the flaps at the top and the bottom, then fold in each of the arms alternately, as shown.
  9. Baste with the milk, sprinkle over the nigella seeds.
  10. Place in the oven for about 25 mins or until golden brown.
  11. Serve by cutting off slices of your preferred size (see my main photo at the top of this post).

Customise It!

A food processor is ideal for making the mix, as it needs to be finely chopped to mesh and bind together to make the filling. However, you could chop the veg finely with a knife and mash it all with a masher while in the pan, if you need to.

Feel free to add or swap in other veg and spices. Peppers add colour, as will chopped or grated carrot, for example.

The pastry and the filling ingredients make this a self-contained, balanced meal in itself, perhaps just accompanied by some red or brown ketchup. You could serve with a salad if you wish.

This went down very well the first time I made it, to the extent that I have made it again with different fillings. It is easy once you’ve mastered the latticing technique shown in the photos. I will feature another of the fillings in my weekend post.

For choice of music, I think it’s time we added something by The Chemical Brothers to the ADK Playlist – here’s Let Forever Be.

Categories
Recipes Snacks

Eurovision Popcorn

This weekend I am looking forward to watching the Eurovision Song Contest. It is, believe it or not, the 67th year of Eurovision. How much it has grown in that time, with hundreds of millions of viewers around the world each year, on TV and online.

This year is something of a one-off, however. The tradition is that the country that wins, hosts it in the subsequent year. 2022’s winner was Ukraine, immediately presenting a challenge as to the 2023 host. As most of you will have noticed, our friends in Ukraine are currently otherwise engaged in repelling an act of aggression from a neighbouring state, to the extent that hosting a massive, televised, international song contest is not exactly a top priority right now.

Step in the UK, who were runners-up in 2022 and have kindly offered to act as host this year. The musical extravanganza will take place on Saturday night, in Liverpool. The acts will follow in the footsteps of the city’s considerable pop music heritage, including the Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Echo & the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Lightning Seeds, The Farm, and more…the list goes on. No pressure then!

Most of us in the UK have grown up with Eurovision as an annual event. In the early years, the UK had a reasonable degree of success, but wins, and indeed high rankings, have been hard to come by in recent years. The suspicion was that our well-publicised rejection of certain European institutions (I am refusing to mention the ‘B’ word) was translating into low scores from the juries of our neighbours. That theory was thrown into doubt last year, however, when Sam Ryder’s Space man came 2nd in the voting overall, teeing up the UK to act as surrogate host for Ukraine.

Over the years, Eurovision has grown into what is now a week-long event, with semi-finals in the lead-up to Saturday’s final. It’s a sign of its success, with so many more countries (including EU accession states from the former Soviet bloc, and even our friends down under in Australia – G’Day!) now wanting to associate themselves with membership of such a great European institution (I am still refusing to spoil the mood by mentioning the ‘B’ word).

Eurovision night is television party night, so get those finger foods ready. My staple, while watching the show live, will be homemade popcorn. The recipe for this is already posted, from my last major televised party occasion, the NFL Superbowl – please see Smoked Paprika Popcorn for details. It really is very easy to make, nutritious, fills the kitchen with a wonderful aroma and tastes great!

As it’s Eurovision, here are some alternative, themed options for toppings you can add at stage 6 in the recipe:

  • France: infuse a crushed clove of garlic in some olive oil, then shake over the popcorn to coat, with a few sprinkles of herbes de provence
  • Italy: drizzle over olive oil and a shake of pizza seasoning, then mix to combine
  • UK: drizzle rapeseed oil over the cooked popcorn, with a few twists of Cornish seasalt and cracked black pepper, then combine
  • Australia: an homage to our friends down under – mix a couple of tbsp Vegemite with the same amount of boiling water, to loosen, then coat the popcorn and mix

Feel free to come up with your own combinations for popcorn toppings and give them a try – German Mustard, Swiss chocolate, Balsamic vinegar and Scotland’s Irn Bru are all just waiting to take their place in this – a kind of crazy Eurovision Popcorn Contest, no less.

Musical choice for the ADK Playlist has to be the track that has brought Eurovision to the UK this year. Here is Sam Ryder with Space man.

Enjoy Eurovision, enjoy the popcorn.

Categories
Bakes Mains Recipes

Kale & Sweet Potato Flan

Now here’s a dish to help tackle the cost of living crisis. Not only will it feed the family on a budget, but the bright, neon-like orange beaming from the roasted sweet potatoes will mean you can switch the lights off for the evening and bask in its glow.

Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but the bright, cheerful sunshine colours of this savoury, vegetarian flan, as shown in the photo, are for real.

Timings

40 mins to prepare, and another 40 mins to bake.

Servings

4 generous portions.

You Will Need

  • 225g plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 100g margarine or spread
  • 2 – 3 tbsp cold water
  • 3 – 4 sweet potatoes
  • oil
  • 1 leek
  • half a red pepper
  • 8 or 9 leaves of kale
  • 1 egg
  • splash of milk
  • salt and pepper

Method

  1. Warm the oven to 180C.
  2. Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and place in a metal dish. Chop the red pepper into pieces, drizzle with oil, and place alongside. Leave to roast in the oven for 30 mins.
  3. Chop the leek and place in a saucepan with a little oil, over a gentle heat. Leave to soften for around 10 – 15 mins.
  4. Steam the kale over a pan of boiling water for 10 mins.
  5. Prepare the pastry base by sieving the flour and salt into a food processor with blade fitted, then adding in the margarine or spread. Blitz till it resembles breadcrumbs. If you prefer, you can complete this stage with an electric mixer instead.
  6. Add in enough water to mix to a smooth dough, then tip out on to a lightly floured surface. Roll out to a size that fits the flan dish you will be using (mine shown is 22cm diameter).
  7. Grease and line the dish with a circle of baking paper, then place the pastry on top. Smooth out to the sides and trim any that is overhanging. Place in the fridge to chill for 10 mins.
  8. Scrunch up another piece of baking paper and then unroll it in the centre of the pastry dish. Fill with ceramic baking beans and place in the oven for 10 mins.
  9. While the pastry base is blind baking, you can combine the filling. Cut the roasted sweet potatoes down the middle and scrape out the soft orange flesh into a bowl. Mash it with a fork, still leaving a few lumps. Add in the roasted red pepper, and leave to cool slightly.
  10. Remove the pan of leek from the heat, and let cool slightly.
  11. Dry the steamed kale leaves between 2 slices of kitchen paper, then spread on a board and cut into shreds.
  12. For the final part of the filling, crack an egg into a jug. Add the splash of milk and season with salt and pepper.
  13. Take the pastry dish from the oven, removing the paper and baking beans. Spread the leek over the base, then top with the sweet potato and red pepper. Dot in the kale and, to finish, gently pour over the beaten egg/milk.
  14. Place back in the oven for 40 mins. Serve!

Customise it!

Stick with the combination of roasted sweet potato and steamed kale, but feel free to swap in other veg around this. I used roasted red pepper because I wanted to enhance the fiery sunshine appearance, but you could use green if you wish. Replace the leek with brown or red onion. Slices of celery would go well. Use your imagination, basically.

A few posts ago, I mentioned I was enjoying the most recent album from dance and electronica pioneers, Leftfield. Here’s another great track from it, which reminds me a little of Kraftwerk – City of Synths.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Vegan Choc Cupcakes

As the egg shortage in our shops continues, so does my search for alternatives to the use of eggs in baking.

Today I’ve borrowed a great recipe for vegan vanilla cupcakes over on Tulsi’s Vegan Kitchen. Click on the link if you wish to see it – there is also a very helpful You Tube instruction video that I can recommend. Thank you, Tulsi!

So what takes the place of eggs in the recipe? Unsweetened almond milk, curdled with a tablespoon of vinegar (I used cider vinegar). I wondered if this would add sourness to the taste, but it absolutely doesn’t. It just replicates the use of buttermilk in baking, which adds taste and texture through its extra acidity.

The one development that I have made is to add 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients, turning mine into chocolate cupcakes, as you can see in my photo above. The mixture rises well and is very moist. An undoubted success!

This recipe, and the one in my previous post using avocado to give texture to a chocolate mousse, have certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities of egg-free baking.

In the music world this week, I’ve been enjoying exploring more of a certain band I’ve admired for some time. As well as listening to music while I cook, I also tune in with my ear pods while at the gym. I’ve discovered that this, the band’s most recent track, has the perfect beat and rhythm to work out to on the elliptical trainer (perfect for me, that is, coming in at 68-69 revolutions per minute). So once you’ve enjoyed the choc cupcakes, burn those calories and get the arms and legs pumping in sync with LCD Soundsystem – this is New Body Rhumba.

Categories
Recipes Snacks

Smoked Paprika Popcorn

This week I’ve been looking to make a snack to enjoy while watching this weekend’s Superbowl. I always stay up for the game, even though it starts at around 11.30pm UK time, and continues into the early hours.

This year’s should be a particularly good match-up – the Philadelphia Eagles have had an outstanding season, but will face their toughest challenge yet against the Kansas City Chiefs. Even though the Chiefs have the talented Patrick Mahomes as quarterback, I’m predicting that the Eagles will be just too strong overall, and will take home the trophy. We shall soon see if I am right!

As it’s Superbowl weekend, I’m keen that my snack should follow an American theme. I also want it to be savoury, that can be enjoyed alongside a cold drink while watching the game.

This has led me to popcorn, a classic American snack. It’s a food that sometimes gets a bad press online, typically for being served smothered in refined sugar and hydrogenated fats, in large cardboard buckets and consumed in dark multiplex cinemas. Even in the home, microwave-ready popcorn also comes in for some criticism with concerns over chemicals used in its packaging.

However, as I am sure my lovely American foodie followers will point out, popping corn, prepared properly, is essentially a healthy snack! As a grain, it is high in fibre, low in calories and a good source of antioxidants.

So why not have a go at making some? It is inexpensive, quick and easy. I bought a 500g bag of popping corn in Sainsbury’s for £1.45, meaning the portion size below costs about 15p (or 18 cents) to make.

The smoked paprika drizzle ingredients are minimal, and cooking it from scratch means that you are in complete control over what and how much is added. This means it can be enjoyed as a relatively healthy snack. It is suitable for both vegetarians and vegans.

Will you be following the Superbowl? Feel free to leave any comments you wish at the foot of this post. Enjoy the popcorn, and enjoy the game!

Servings

This will make around 50g of popcorn, enough for two people as a Superbowl snack. If you’re expecting guests, especially hungry, or if the game goes into Overtime, just make extra!

Timings

10 mins to make in total (see, I told you it was quick).

You Will Need

  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 50g popping maize corn
  • sea salt flakes
  • half to 1 tsp smoked paprika

Method

  1. Put a heat under a heavy pan with tight-fitting lid. Add in 1 tbsp of the oil and the golden corn. Spread the corn in a single layer across the bottom of the pan (see photo above).
  2. After a minute, pick up the pan and hold down the lid. Give it a good shake to ensure all the corn is coated in the oil. I actually do this a few times during the cooking process. Just make sure to keep that lid tight on the pan while doing so!
  3. After another few minutes, it will all start kicking off. The corn will begin to pop and bits will be pinging off the lid and walls of the pan. A drop of moisture inside each corn kernel causes it to explode when heated, making it jump around (hence the reason for the tight fitting lid).
  4. There are usually a few kernels that don’t pop, and the ones that have popped will toast nicely in the hot pan. After a few minutes the popping will slow down, and you can remove the pan from the heat.
  5. Pause for a moment to enjoy the delicious aroma of cooked and popped corn that will just have filled your kitchen.
  6. Tip the popcorn into a large sharing bowl and, while it is still warm, drizzle over the second tbsp of oil. Sprinkle over the sea salt and the smoked paprika. Give it a good stir so that all the corn gets coated.
  7. Finally, taste and add further seasalt or paprika, if required.
  8. Take the bowl (which should resemble my main photo at the top of this post) with your cold drink of choice, and retire to the TV room to enjoy the Superbowl.

Next track for the ADK Spotify Playlist is also Superbowl-inspired. It’s Rihanna’s turn to headline the Half Time Show this year. With no rain forecast for Arizona this Sunday, I wonder if she will still be bringing along her Umbrella? Let’s hope so!